Dr. Francis Mechner founded the Mechner Foundation in 1997 as the successor of prior non-profits through which he had been funding his pursuits and research activities since 1960. Rather than seeking grants or institutional support, he has chosen this funding route so as to maintain his independence and freedom to undertake particularly innovative projects. A detailed bio for Dr. Mechner can be found here.
Jordan created the bestselling video games Karateka and Prince of Persia—both classics and major influences on the action-adventure videogame genre. Prince of Persia is one of the most successful videogame franchises to date, and the Disney feature film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was one of the highest-grossing videogame movie adaptations ever. Jordan also wrote the New York Times best-selling Eisner award-nominated graphic novel Templar.
Dr. Emily Mechner was Assistant Professor of Economics at Bates College, ME, and senior consultant at Bates White, LLC, a Washington, D.C. economic consulting firm. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Oyster School Community Council, and has previously served as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (2007-8), an elected position in the government of the District of Columbia.
David Mechner is co-founder and CEO of Pragma Securities, which is a leader in providing automated trading technology to the finance industry. Mechner also serves on the board of directors of the Blacksmith Institute. Previously, he was a doctoral fellow at New York University’s Center for Neural Science where he studied the biology of learning and memory, and led a research effort to develop a Go-playing program based on artificial intelligence. David is among the highest ranked non-Asian Go players in the world.
