Markus Alexej "Notch" Persson is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. Persson is known as the owner of Mojang, the video game company he founded alongside Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser in late 2010. In September 2014, he announced publicly that he would be leaving Mojang after its acquisition by Microsoft. His principal venture for founding Mojang was Minecraft, a first-person sandbox video game that has gained popularity and support since its tech demo in 2009. Since the release of Minecraft, Persson has gained significant notability within the video game industry, having won multiple awards and establishing relations with the industry's figureheads. Persson retained his position as the lead designer of Minecraft until the game's official launch in 2011, after which he transferred creative authority to Jens Bergensten. 

June 1st, 1979 in Stockholm (Age 45)