The Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced it hired XR Veteran Joanna Popper as its Chief Metaverse Officer to explore digital technologies, Variety Magazine reported on Thursday.
The former Hewlett Packard executive aims to expand the CAA’s portfolio of emerging technologies, including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR), blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), among others, for some of the largest filming, advertising, and television studios.
CAA Names Joanna Popper Chief Metaverse Officer https://t.co/grNTJ0Ca3k
— Variety (@Variety) August 4, 2022
She has also supervised multiple technology product launches for VR headsets and directed extended reality (XR) projects for major filming studios such as NBCUniversal, Disney, Sony, DreamWorks, Valve, Microsoft, and many others.
Popper is set to direct a team of Metaverse specialists and executives and work jointly with the company’s Head of Strategic Development Alexandra Shannon and the CAA’s Adam Friedman.
Jim Burtson, President of CAA, said in a statement,
“CAA has always been at the forefront of charting new and emerging business opportunities for our clients. At this pivotal time in our industry, the metaverse will be impactful to shifts in content creation, distribution, and community engagement that drive significant opportunity for our clients”
He added the CAA was “thrilled” to welcome Popper for her industry expertise and business-building skills “critical to driving significant impact across the industry.”
Responding, Popper said she was “so excited” to work with the CAA to “create and build for the future.”
“It feels like a homecoming, bringing my technology and storytelling experience back to Hollywood. I couldn’t be in a better place than CAA to help guide the future of entertainment, helping build on CAA’s growing leadership in an area as important and impactful as the Metaverse”
The news comes amid a series of fresh hires across the XR industry, namely after Music Entrepreneur Ventures hired Metaverse expert and investor, Tony Parisi, to guide the company as an advisor.
IKEA’s former Lead for 3D augmented reality (AR) strategy, Daniel Frith, recently joined computer vision firm Avataar as its Vice-President of 3D AR to direct the firm as it develops AR solutions and assets for global clients and research consumer purchasing behaviours.
Luxury styling gaming firm DREST also onboarded Lisa Bridgett as Chief Executive to outline and direct the enterprise’s metaverse plans and products amid a nearly threefold increase in year-on-year growth.
