Mike Harrington

Mike Harrington was the co-founder of the computer game development company, Valve Software and a lead programmer of the game Half-Life.

Previously a games developer at Dynamix and a developer on the Windows NT operating system at Microsoft, Harrington founded Valve in 1996 with Gabe Newell, another former Microsoft employee: he and Newell privately funded Valve through the development of Half-Life. Half-Life became a game industry phenomenon, winning more than 50 Game of the Year Awards; it was also named the "Best PC Game of All Time" by PC Gamer Magazine, the leading PC Games magazine.

On January 15, 2000, after the success of Half-Life, Harrington dissolved his partnership with Newell and left Valve to take an extended vacation with his wife, Monica.

Harrington returned to the software industry in 2006, when he co-founded Picnik with long-time friend and former colleague Darrin Massena. Picnik was acquired by Google in March 2010.