Sarah Bond’s resume may look unconventional, but the president of Xbox believes she’s in exactly the right place.
Bond started as a McKinsey consultant, spent several years at T-Mobile, including as a chief of staff to former CEO John Legere, and joined Xbox in 2017.
A quick summary of her decades-long career doesn’t suggest someone who’d eventually lead a major video game brand. But Bond gets the joy and creativity of gaming — and the business of it, too.
She played a key role in Microsoft’s 2022 acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, which was unsuccessfully challenged by government regulators. Bond has also spoken about the importance of making gaming more accessible and winning new customers at a time when industry growth is stagnant.
Her track record is undeniably impressive. Yet it’s particularly compelling to consider during Women’s History Month, with its invitation to reflect on gender inequality in industries traditionally dominated by men.
A love of gaming begins
Bond started gaming at age 6. She fondly remembers playing the PC-based Kings Quest II alongside her father. Other favorites from childhood and young adulthood included Sonic the Hedgehog and GoldenEye 007.
Now she’s the parent playing with her children. Family game night with Bond’s husband and their two kids frequently involves Xbox’s Minecraft Dungeons.
When Bond arrived at Xbox, a division of Microsoft Gaming, she thought of the company’s product as consumer tech. While she still believes that’s true, her aperture has widened through years leading teams that build Xbox’s platform and bring independent developers to it.
“It’s this beautiful mixture of art and science in the creativity…that I find deeply energizing,” Bond says of gaming.
A big-picture perspective
Bond, who is Black, clearly belongs in the space. But gaming hasn’t always welcomed women and people of color.
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The 2015 Gamergate controversy, for example, became a battle over representation in gaming — and ultimately a proxy for broader cultural disagreement over diversity and equality in industries traditionally dominated by white men. That overarching conflict is now the backdrop against which the Trump administration has vowed to eradicate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the government, education, and the private sector.
When Bond joined Xbox in 2017, the head of Xbox Gaming, Phil Spencer, gave her a candid warning about working in gaming. She recalled the moment in a Harvard Business Alumni publication, describing her response thusly: “Phil, my aunt died yesterday. She was a colonel in the Army in the era of segregation. That was hard.”
This big-picture perspective has helped Bond survive — and thrive — in different corporate environments. She says that understanding her ancestors’ struggles helps her think of progress holistically.
“It starts for me with the fundamental truth that there is no individual achievement, that we are all a product of the people who made us, invested in us, raised us,” Bond told Mashable.
Bond says that just as she’s able to do “amazing things” now because of her aunt’s modeled determination and she hopes others will find inspiration in her own example.
Sarah Bond at work for Xbox.
Credit: Courtesy Xbox
Lessons learned, advice given
Bond doesn’t subscribe to a philosophy of working until exhaustion. Instead, she practices meditation and mindfulness, taking physical and mental breaks as necessary so that she can perform at a consistently high level.
“This is absolutely me performance optimizing,” Bond says. “It’s just I figured out sometimes for me to deliver the very best, I’ve got to stop.”
Bond also values risk-taking over perfection. She learned that lesson as a Yale undergraduate, when she memorized the answers to questions she thought would appear on her Spanish exam. She got an “A” in the class, but realized after traveling to Spain that she actually couldn’t speak the language proficiently.
The experience taught Bond that memorizing a test or operating within a rigid framework leads to a much different outcome than pushing herself to be at “max learning capacity.”
“The way I studied for Spanish was the greatest lesson of my life,” Bond says.
At a time when tech is embracing more “masculine energy,” in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s words, Bond has one piece of advice for girls and women who want to pursue a career in a male-dominated STEM field — find mentors who will hold you to a “high bar of performance.”
This, she says, is because some people may decide for girls and women what they can do, or falsely believe they’re delicate and treat them differently. She believes girls and women will thrive when they find people who are truthful about their abilities and then give them the feedback they need to achieve their goals.
“[S]eek out the people who are going to do that investment in you, because those people are liquid gold,” Bond says.
