Dr. Michael Capps

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Capps spent most of his career building Epic Games from 20 employees to a global gaming powerhouse, leading the creation of the Unreal Engine, the Gears of War Franchise, and Fortnite.  He retired as president of Epic Games in 2012 to focus on family. In 2017, Capps came out of retirement to see if he could make a dent in one of the largest problems we face today – the ethical problems of black box AI making decisions that affect people’s lives and welfare.  The founders of Diveplane agreed that the company’s top goal was the replacement of black-box AI with transparent, ethical methods – even above profits – and Diveplane’s investors share the goal of social impact alongside entrepreneurial return.

Capps is an industry thought leader in the development of responsible data and AI practices.  In 2020, he co-founded the Data & Trust Alliance, a CEO-level non-profit focused on creating and sharing best practices for safe data and AI.  Alliance members include the CEOs of Wal-mart, IBM, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and two dozen similar companies.  He personally led the Algorithmic Bias Safeguards for Workforce initiative, whose work has been adopted by global enterprises as part of vendor selection.

In addition to running Diveplane, Capps led the Competitiveness Council for the Business Executives for National Security, and regularly advises US lawmakers on issues of national resilience, modernization, and humanity’s existential need for responsible AI.