Ben Baldanza
Ben Baldanza has contributed reviews to Counter Magazine, The Game Report, Rail Gamer and the Funagain Web Site. He is an avid gamer and has an impressive collection of games, both mainstream and hard-to-find titles.Born in 1961, Ben is married to Marcia, another avid gamer. Ben now lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but has lived in and been part of successful gaming groups in Houston, Texas, McLean, Virginia and San Salvador, El Salvador. He started playing games as a child in Rome, New York. These started as mostly Italian card games with his mother, graduating to family board games and some wargames in college. He stopped gaming for a while after college, and was reunited with the hobby when introduced to some of the "German Invasion" games in the early 1990's.Ben holds degrees from both Syracuse University and Princeton University and has held multiple positions with various airline companies throughout his career. Today, he is the CEO of Spirit Airlines, a major US airlines that is publicly traded using the ticker SAVE. Aside from gaming, Ben likes to be a good husband and dad, run, and play trombone in local area groups. Ben and Marcia have a son, Enzo, who is a budding gamer in his own right. Their dog, Karl-Heinz, is a dachshund who loves to sleep during gaming sessions with one eye opened, waiting for a snack to be dropped.
He particularly enjoys development games, transport or "network" type games, any odd game or dexterity game and trick-taking card games. Ben also keeps an eye out for games that are easy to teach to non-gamers as a way to grow participation in the hobby.