Spencer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife and two daughters. Spencer joined Microsoft in 1988 and has worked in a number of technical roles, leading the development of Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles (such as Encarta), development manager for Microsoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products including Microsoft Works and Microsoft Picture It! Spencer served as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA, working with Microsoft's European developers and studios such as Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd. until 2008, when he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios, eventually becoming the studio's corporate vice president a year later. He participated in Microsoft's E3 conferences in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. In late March 2014, Satya Nadella announced in a corporate e-mail that Spencer was to "lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video te...