Patricia E. Vance
President
Patricia Vance was appointed president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in November 2002. As president, she is responsible for overseeing and enforcing the computer and video game industry's self-regulatory practices, which includes ensuring that video game consumers have effective tools with which to make educated purchase decisions. Ms. Vance serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Family Online Safety Institute as well as the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. She was also appointed to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG), which was established by Congress to make recommendations on the protection of children on the Internet through education, labeling and parental control technology. She has testified on behalf of the ESRB before both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and has represented the U.S. video game industry's rating system at governmental, academic and industry events and seminars around the world.
Ms. Vance has been named to Video Business' Women Elite as well as Next-Generation's Top 25 People of the Year. As an expert on interactive media, she has appeared frequently on TV and radio stations nationwide including ABC (World News Tonight, Good Morning America and ABC News Radio), NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN and Bloomberg; has been quoted in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsweek, Associated Press and Reuters; and has had articles published online by Good Housekeeping, Parenting and others.
Before joining the ESRB, Ms. Vance spent 18 years at Disney/ABC, with responsibility for a broad range of new media and market initiatives. These initiatives included the ABC.com, ABCNEWS.com, Oscar.com, Oprah.com, several interactive entertainment and educational software publishing ventures (Creative Wonders, ABC Interactive, OT Sports, ABC News Interactive), direct response marketing and in-flight entertainment.
Prior to ABC, Ms. Vance was responsible for planning movie acquisitions for The Movie Channel. She has also held senior management positions with The Princeton Review as Executive Vice President & General Manager of Admissions Services, and before that as President and CEO of HalfthePlanet.com, an online resource network for people with disabilities.
Ms. Vance holds a B.A. in International Relations/Russian from Washington University in St. Louis, is the mother of two children and lives in Westchester County, NY.
About the ESRB
The ESRB is a non-profit, self-regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). ESRB independently assigns age and content ratings, enforces advertising guidelines, and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry.
