PGIT 065: Larry Roznai of Mayfair Games

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DATE : Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:50:02 -0400
Entered in Database : 2009-04-10 20:50:02
length : 37267938
Link to the Show / Show Notes

While on the Caribbean cruise with Gamer Adventures, Don had the opportunity to sit and visit with Larry Roznai, president of Mayfair Games. Games brought up during today's show include Empire Builder, Sutter's Mill, Silverton, Settlers of Catan, and Family Business.

Larry Roznai is a German-speaking native of Chicago, and a U.S. Navy veteran. An avid gamer, he hosted weekly game nights for many years before discovering the new generation of fine parlor games. When he brought home Darwin Bromley's Empire Builder game in 1989, his whole family became great fans of Mayfair Games. Larry became informally associated with Mayfair Games when his younger brother Joe--Mayfair's accountant since 1988--brought him to Mayfair's offices in 1989. There, they played or play-tested a host of Mayfair's games. Their first development work was on Eurorails in 1989-90. Both Joe and Larry became fans of the game system and began working on projects in the early 1990s. They later co-designed Nippon Rails. Larry has since designed Australian Rails and developed Lunar Rails and Russian Rails.

Larry became a part of Mayfair Games' extended family when he attended Gencon as a company guest in 1990. He began working game shows in his off-hours. Meanwhile, he worked for Honeywell. An electronics specialist, he worked on or oversaw major HVAC projects. His strong operations and management skills impressed the new Mayfair Games ownership team, and in 1999 he left the forced air industry and joined Mayfair Games as a board member, President, and COO. Larry moonlights as the bass player for the highly semi-legendary rock band "Byte," which he co-founded uncounted decades ago. He likes rock-n-roll. It is almost as dear to him as his great family. His wife Bridget and daughter Loren both work for Mayfair Games, while his son Karl attends school and helps play-test Mayfair products. (Of course, having worked for Mayfair Games since 1997, Bridget has longer tenure than her Johnny-come-lately spouse.)

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