Michael Montgomery

Sega GameWorks

Age: 42

Specialty: Developing Entertainment Centers

Recent Deals: Opening Sega GameWorks; representing DreamWorks SKG in Playa Vista project.

As a youth, Michael Montgomery enjoyed playing pinball. Now he’s opening the ’90s version of pinball arcades: mega-entertainment centers that feature state-of-the-art video games.

Montgomery is president and chief operating officer of Sega GameWorks, a joint venture of Sega Enterprises Ltd. and the DreamWorks SKG entertainment company.

Montgomery came to the job via DreamWorks, where he was the studio’s point man for development of its film production campus at the long-stalled Playa Vista project.

He continues to monitor Playa Vista for DreamWorks, he explained, but most of his energy these days is in setting up the Sega GameWorks arcades at shopping malls around the country.

The arcades which are really more like mini-theme parks debuted in Seattle this year. A GameWorks is set to open in Ontario this summer, and at Universal CityWalk next year. More than a dozen other centers are planned, including locations in Las Vegas, Tempe, Ariz., and Grapevine, Texas.

Montgomery, who graduated from Dartmouth College, says his real estate background did not play any part in his being hired at Sega GameWorks. “It was a fantastic opportunity to work for a new and exciting company,” he said.

Although he left DreamWorks last fall, he remains an advisor in the controversial Playa Vista dealings.

“Everyone knows the project could move forward, the only thing that is stopping the situation is the developer,” he said, a reference to Playa Vista developer Robert Maguire.

Hildy Medina