PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2022

THE XMAN BEHIND XBOX He’s a native Peorian, burnishing our hub-of-the-universe credentials

BY PHIL LUCIANO PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ROBBIE BACH

I f you’re a gamer, there’s a good chance you’ ve enj oyed the handiwork of Robbie Bach, possibly the most successful businessman to remain unknown in his Peoria hometown. Bach, who before retiring as president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division spearheaded the launch of Xbox, says with a laugh, “To my knowledge, my connection to Peoria has been a well-kept secret.” So, perhaps, is the fol lowing: Though Bach boasted the corporate title of Chief Xbox Officer, “the funny thing is, I’m not a gamer,” he says with another chuckle. “And I’m not a technical person.” Interesting, given that some 170 million units of the video game and its offshoots have been sold worldwide, even though Bach confesses that, initially, he feared it might crash and burn, if it got off the ground at all. Today, 60 and retired from Microsoft, he works as an author and speaker, a self-described “civic engineer.” As he explains, “How do we make communities better?” That ’s one goal . Another is returning to Peoria for the first time in 60 years.

In the 1950s, Robert and Margaret Bachwere raising a family inMilwaukee, whereheworkedasabiochemist forPabst Brewing Co. In 1959, he was transferred to the Pabst plant in Peoria Heights, so the clan – including children ages 12, 11, 8 and 7 — moved to Peoria. They lived in a ranch house onOakglen Drive, near University Street and Northmoor Road. In 1961, Margaret Bach discovered she was again pregnant. He “was the proverbial Catholic mistake,” Bach now jokes. His siblings attended Kellar School. Their most vivid collective memory involves a family car their mom bought in Peoria for $50. The rear windows

Robbie Bach

Margaret Bach and kids strike a pose in Peoria.

38 APRIL 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE