Alexey Pajitnov (Russian: Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов, regularly Aleksey Leonidovich Pazhitnov, born April 16, 1955) created Tetris with Vadim Gerasimov and Dmitriy Pavlovsky. Under his employment contract with the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he received a regular paycheck instead of royalties (similar to "work made for hire" under modern copyright law). He and Henk Rogers went on to found The Tetris Company in 1996.
As of 1996 to the present (2006), Pajitnov works for Microsoft, designing games for MSN Zone and Xbox Live Arcade.
Note: Alexey Pajitnov is the name the Tetris Company prefers, even though it is not the traditional Russian spelling.