Web3 Startup Yuga Labs Names Former Activision Blizzard President as New CEO

Yuga Labs, the Web3 startup behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, said Monday that former Activision Blizzard (ATVI) President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre is joining the company as CEO, effective in the first half of 2023.

Alegre boasts an impressive resume, holding leadership positions at global music and media giant Bertelsmann and spending over 16 years as president of various international divisions at Google. In April 2020, Alegre was named president and chief operating officer of Activision Blizzard, the powerhouse gaming company behind titles like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and more.

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

In a press release, Yuga Labs said Alegre "brings deep expertise in areas that are critical to Yuga’s ambitions for an immersive Web3 world."

Alegre will replace Nicole Muniz, who joined Yuga Labs as CEO in September 2021. Muniz will stay on as a partner and strategic adviser.

Under Muniz, the company has grown its portfolio of non-fungible token (NFT) projects, acquiring Meebits and CryptoPunks from Larva Labs in March and Beeple’s Web3 ecosystem WENEW and its flagship NFT project, 10KTF, last month.

In March, Yuga Labs raised $450 million led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), reaching a $4 billion valuation.

Read more: Empire of the Bored Apes

Announcing his departure from Activision Blizzard on Friday, Alegre said he was "very proud of the exceptional work and dedication" the teams at the company brought to the gaming space.

Alegre's gaming expertise will amplify Yuga's new efforts to build an interoperable, gamified metaverse world called The Otherside, which ran a successful "First Trip" in July for thousands of holders of its Otherdeed NFTs linked to virtual land ownership. The narrative-driven platform, which allows participants to turn their NFTs into playable characters, teased a continuation of its storytelling in Q4.

Yuga Labs has developed a passionate community of NFT holders, offering them long-term utility, surprise airdrops and full intellectual property (IP) rights over their characters for commercial purposes – paving the way for food trucks, music groups and beverage companies emblazoned with Ape branding.

Making the move official, Alegre chose Mutant Ape #3850 as his new profile picture (PFP), reflecting his evolving 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."