User:Bulldog1948/sandbox

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Marten 'Bulldog' Davies is an entrepreneur, intra-preneur and was the President and Founder of Firebird Licensees Inc [FLI] in Ramsey, New Jersey. Firebird Licensees [a subsidiary of Telecomsoft, British Telecom] was the second British publisher/developer of European software to enter the US market. The first was Mastertronic headed up by Martin Alper. He is best known for bringing to market major releases from Firebird Licensees, Origin Systems and Electronic Arts. Marten's entry into the Video Game market was as European Sales Manager for Computer Games Limited in 1984 handling the Activision software franchise for the Atari and Intellivision consoles.

Biography [edit] Born Oct 8th 1948 in Berlin, Germany [British Amy Occupation of the Rhine] At the age of 5 he moved to the UK. Marten was educated at Brentwood Public School for Boys and Hatfield Polytechnic [now the University of Hertfordshire] gaining a B Sc, Honors in Applied Chemistry. Marten emigrated to the US in 1985 to execute a start up on behalf of Telecomsoft a BT company.Marten is the oldest of four brothers works at the University of Texas at Austin, IC2, Global Commercialization Group and currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife June Cook and three sons.

FIREBIRD LICENSEES Marten entered the US in August 1985 and by October 8th was importing and shipping product to US distributors. Marten worked with Paul Bader FLI's first Sales Manager, Phil Pratt FLI's Marketing Manager [responsible for FLI's first advertisement for Elite " 100,000 Americans are about to become Dangerous"], and John Fletcher who was the critical operational component at the UK base of Telecomsoft. By May of 1986 FLI achieved a major first in the US market by gaining the #1 spot on the then Billboard Software Sales Chart for Elite [a space trading and simulation combat game created by Braben and Bell] This was the first European game to chart the number 1 position in the US. FLI was also responsible for bringing to market products from Magnetic Scrolls [The Pawn, Guild of Thieves] Marten left FLI just before the US and UK operations were sold to Microprose.

ORIGIN SYSTEMS Marten was tapped to be the first Director of Sales for Origin Systems and was subsequently promoted to V.P.Sales. He and the combined Origin Team were responsible for bringing to market titles of note such as Ultima VI, VII, [Richard Garriott] etc. Wing Commander 1,2,3,4, [Chris Roberts] Crusader1 & 2, [Tony Zurovec] System Shock [Warren Spector] as well as the Jane's Simulation series [Andy Hollis]