Former Activision Blizzard President Joins Web3 Startup Yuga Labs as CEO

The Web3 startup Yuga Labs, which created Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced on Monday that former Activision Blizzard (ATVI) President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre will take the helm as CEO in the first quarter of 2023. Alegre has a distinguished career, having held executive positions at the major global media and entertainment company Bertelsmann and serving as president of numerous international Google divisions for more than 16 years. Alegre was appointed president and chief operating officer of Activision Blizzard in April 2020, the dominant gaming studio in charge of World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and other popular games.

“Throughout my career, I have sought to build disruptive and innovative platforms that provide long-term value to consumers. Web3 presents an opportunity to reinvent how content is used, transacted and owned across the globe.”

Alegre “brings deep expertise in areas critical to Yuga's ambitions for an immersive Web3 world,” according to a press release from Yuga Labs. Nicole Muniz, who joined Yuga Labs as CEO in September 2021, will replace Alegre. As a partner and strategic adviser, Muniz will continue. Through the acquisition of Meebits and CryptoPunks from Larva Labs in March, as well as Beeple's Web3 ecosystem WENEW and its lead NFT project, 10KTF, last month, the company has expanded its portfolio of non-fungible token (NFT) projects under Muniz. Yuga Labs raised $450 million in March under the direction of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), valuing the company at $4 billion. Alegre said he was “very proud of the exceptional work and dedication” the teams at the company brought to the gaming industry when he announced his departure from Activision Blizzard on Friday.

Alegre's experience in the gaming industry will support Yuga's new initiatives to create The Otherside, an interactive, gamified metaverse world. The company successfully ran a "First Trip" in July for thousands of owners of its Otherdeed NFTs, which are linked to virtual land ownership. The narrative-driven platform, which lets users create playable characters from their NFTs, teased a fourth-quarter storyline.

Yuga Labs has created a vibrant community of NFT holders by providing them with long-term utility, random airdrops, and full intellectual property (IP) rights over their characters for commercial uses. This has paved the way for food trucks, musical ensembles, and beverage companies to use the Ape logo. Alegre made the transition official by selecting Mutant Ape #3850 as his new profile picture (PFP), which reflects his changing identity in Web3.

“Ownership and identity in the digital world is the next frontier for the internet, and something we need to get right,” Alegre said. “Yuga is at the forefront of such innovation. I am extremely excited to lead the team to the next phase of growth.”