Warren Holland

Warren Holland (often Warren Holland Jr. in 1990s press) is the founder of Decipher, Inc. and was identified on Decipher's own site around 2000 as Chairman & CEO. Wikipedia's Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG) article also lists him among the game's designers.

This page is a fan encyclopedia stub focused on SWCCG-related, sourced roles. It does not invent unpublished agreements or day-to-day design credits beyond what cited sources state.

Chairman & CEO / Founder

Decipher's archived About Decipher hub (August 2000) presents Holland as Chairman & CEO and points to a signed Vision statement under that title. The Find Us page on the same capture states that Decipher was "Begun in 1983 by Founder and CEO, Warren Holland" and places the company in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, with physical address 253 Granby St., Norfolk, VA 23510 (mailing P.O. Box 56). A Who's Who directory capture likewise lists him as Chairman & CEO.

The Vision statement opens from Decipher's "inception in 1983" and is signed "Warren Holland, Chairman and CEO." (Fetched text may omit a preceding "ideals" list; do not invent that missing preamble.)

Wikipedia likewise identifies Holland as Decipher's founder (1983, Norfolk area) and a key executive alongside Cindy Thornburg.

Norfolk and early company path

Local Virginian-Pilot coverage frames Holland's path into Decipher: after graduate school he went into construction with his father, then in 1983 started Decipher "with the idea that it would be a creative outlet in my life." A November 1994 Pilot piece on the Star Trek CCG launch presents him as company president (with Cindy Thornburg as VP marketing and sales) and describes Decipher's earlier product lines and Norfolk base. A February 1997 Pilot feature covers the Star Wars CCG era from the same Norfolk games company.

Full corporate biography (puzzle lines, dinner-party games, non-SWCCG products) belongs primarily on Decipher; this page stays on Holland's sourced SWCCG-era executive role.

Licensed CCGs as publisher

After Tom Braunlich and Rollie Tesh approached Decipher in 1993 with a licensed collectible-card-game concept, Decipher released Star Trek: The Next Generation CCG (1994) and then SWCCG (December 1995). Narrative sources emphasize Holland as the company leader who secured licenses and published the games, not as the day-to-day card designer in those accounts.

The 1994 Pilot article quotes Holland projecting large Star Trek CCG revenue and noting pursuit of a Star Wars license alongside the Paramount license already in hand. The 1997 Pilot quotes him on SWCCG's layered expansion design and on Decipher having printed close to a billion cards by end of 1997 (attributed company claim in that article).

SWCCG designer credit (read carefully)

Wikipedia's SWCCG infobox lists designers Tom Braunlich, Rollie Tesh, Warren Holland, and Jerry Darcy. Narrative histories emphasize that Braunlich and Tesh designed the early Decipher CCGs, while Holland led the company that acquired licenses and published them. Former Decipher staffer Mark Tuttle later called SWCCG "Tom and Rollie's … game."

This wiki therefore:

• Includes Holland on Creators of SWCCG because Wikipedia's designer credit line names him.
• Labels the day-to-day design vs. publisher/executive split as only partly resolved in secondary sources (see Gaps). Primary Premiere packaging / rulebook designer lines naming Holland are not yet transcribed here.

License loss, DecipherCon, and Players' Committee

Trade coverage of the Lucasfilm license moving to Wizards of the Coast attributes a Q&A to Decipher CEO Holland (ICv2, stamped 1 January 2002), including claims that Decipher offered more money to keep the license than prior Decipher licenses, that customers had invested heavily in the Decipher Star Wars game, and that Decipher would continue supporting existing game activities with player participation. Prefer that article's wording over paraphrase when citing specifics.

On 3 October 2001, Holland published a special message canceling DecipherCon and stating that Decipher would donate the planned $50,000 championship prize pool to September 11 relief in the champions' names (TheForce.net report of the CEO message).

On 25 January 2002, Holland (signed Chairman & CEO) announced formation of a Players' Committee / player-advocate structure so fans could continue organized play and related support after the license ended.

A Decipher release reported 29 April 2002 (TheForce.net, 7 May 2002) quotes Holland on a product donation of over one million dollars to support the Players' Committee and retailers, including the line that customers "invested nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in these games and we will not abandon them."

Details of the handoff belong on History of the Players Committee and related pages; do not invent terms of unpublished private agreements here.

Later public activity (brief)

In a 28 February 2025 Cryptozoic Entertainment press release announcing a partnership to relaunch How to Host a Murder, Holland is quoted as Decipher CEO on revitalizing that dinner-party line. Non-SWCCG product history and later Decipher corporate controversies are out of scope for this SWCCG stub unless needed to cite a SWCCG fact (see Decipher / Wikipedia).

Interviews / media

Radio Free Decipher / Decipher WARS Radio (YouTube)

Player's Council uploads; episode index on the LOTR-TCG PC wiki:

• RFD Star Wars Special (28 December 2001) — Warren Holland on the Star Wars license end / Players' Committee context.
• RFD Broadcast 99 (5 October 2001) — special interview with Warren Holland (DecipherCon cancel Q&A context per index).
• RFD Broadcast 46 (15 August 2000) — includes Kyle Heuer interview of Warren Holland (Jedi Knights); index marks truncated audio.
• Decipher WARS Radio 03 (9 July 2004) — Warren Holland Interview Part 1.
• Decipher WARS Radio 04 (16 July 2004) — Holland Interview Part 2.
• Decipher WARS Radio 16 (6 October 2004) — Crack a Pack With the CEO.

Articles

• The Ringer (21 May 2018) — secondary longform interviewing Holland on license loss, PC, and community; not a primary Decipher credit sheet.
• ICv2 license-loss summary and TheForce.net CEO messages linked above.

See also

• Creators of SWCCG
• Tom Braunlich · Rollie Tesh · Jerry Darcy
• Decipher · Star Wars CCG · Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license
• History of the Players Committee · Players Committee

Gaps

• Primary Premiere packaging / rulebook designer credit line naming Holland as "designer" not yet transcribed here (highest-value primary for resolving designer-vs-executive ambiguity).
• Relative design labor vs. Braunlich/Tesh/Darcy remains ambiguous in secondary narratives.
• BoardGameGeek person page not fetched (host 403).
• Birth date, education institution, and non-Decipher CV not reliably sourced this pass.
• Vision page may omit a preceding "ideals" list in HTML-to-text fetches; do not invent it.
• Full original decipher.com HTML of Holland's license-loss Q&A not locked this pass (ICv2 quotes used).
• Corporate/financial controversies involving Decipher after the SWCCG era are out of scope unless needed to cite a SWCCG fact.

Sources

• About Decipher (Decipher.com IA, 15 August 2000)
• Vision (signed Chairman and CEO)
• Find Us (Founder and CEO; Norfolk address)
• Virginian-Pilot / VT mirror (13 November 1994)
• PilotOnline (16 February 1997)
• ICv2 license-loss article (1 January 2002)
• TheForce.net DecipherCon / 9/11 message (3 October 2001)
• Players' Committee letter (25 January 2002)
• TheForce.net donation report (7 May 2002)
• Cryptozoic How to Host a Murder PR (28 February 2025)
• Decipher, Inc. / Star Wars Customizable Card Game (Wikipedia)
• The Ringer (2018; secondary)
• Radio Free Decipher episode index
• History of the Players Committee (local; Wayback Decipher/GPN sources)