Marcus Howard is the CEO of ProjectMQ, an experiential marketing agency that uses video games to help colleges and other brands more effectively engage younger audiences.

He’s also the President of the Tampa Association of Gaming, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the gaming industry and STEM youth programs in the Tampa Bay region. Marcus got Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas when he was six, and he’s been playing video games ever since.

Video games inspired Marcus’ interest in technology, and in the 9th grade, he started coding his own video game on the TI-83+ graphing calculator. In 2013 he launched ProjectMQ with his identical twin brother Malcolm, to solve the largest problem in the global video game industry: game discovery.

Five years later, PayPal selected ProjectMQ out of 20,000+ applicants nationwide, as the top digital service of their 2018 business contest.

In 2019, he co-authored “The Business of Esports” book that was published by the University of South Florida. Marcus was a featured speaker on the “Tampa Bay and the eSports Industry” panel at the University of South Florida’s 2019 Esports Summit, and on the “Level Two & Beyond: The Future of Esports” panel of Skillshot Media’s 2019 Esports Summit at the Georgia World Congress Center. He’s currently building a “Blockchain, Gaming, and Esports” course, to help college students understand why the $152B gaming industry is how blockchain/crypto adoption will go mainstream. In his spare time, he also scouts indie games (games made by independent game developers) for funding/distribution deals with the world’s largest gaming companies.

Marcus is excited about how video games inspire the next generation of innovators to pursue STEAM careers. He currently lives in Tampa Bay with his wife and two kids (3-year old daughter and 2-year old son). Marcus is always eager to chat about video games, and you can find him on LinkedIn: Marcus “Blockchain” Howard.