Activision Blizzard (ATVI) announced on Wednesday the appointment of Google executive Daniel Alegre as its new President and Chief Operating Officer, effective April 7. This news came about a month after the video game powerhouse announced a multiyear deal with Alphabet that made Google Cloud its preferred cloud host for online gaming, and gave YouTube exclusive broadcasting rights for Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and other esports events.
Activision Blizzard describes Alegre as someone with "decades of global experience in entertainment and technology and a consistent record of driving revenue growth at Google." He will be in charge of the company's three business segments -- Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King Digital Entertainment -- and will report directly to CEO Bobby Kotick.
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The right hire to oversee its global reach
In a statement, Kotick explained that his company's greatest challenge is "prioritizing the many opportunities we have and recruiting and retaining the talent needed to execute with focus and excellence."
Kotick identified the qualities needed for this role in Alegre. "I was deeply impressed by Daniel's entrepreneurial drive and broad and deep experience in driving global growth across a variety of businesses in a rapidly changing industry," he said.
At Google, Alegre was President of Global Retail and Shopping. He ran Google's Asia Pacific and Japan businesses and helped the tech giant penetrate India and other countries throughout the region, including Australia and Korea.
That experience could prove particularly valuable in his efforts to expand the video game company's reach and attract new players from around the world, since China has the world's largest population of gamers and is a hotbed for the growing esports industry.
