Winning the Game

“My career has been serendipitous,” says Eugene Wu (’19).

The San Marino, California, native has certainly changed lanes a time or two. He majored in political science while he was an undergraduate at UC Irvine. His goal: to become an entertainment lawyer at a major talent agency. An internship that didn’t quite click, though, had him questioning this route. Instead, he says, “I’ve always been passionate about sports and music, so I decided to interview and take a job at AEG Worldwide, a major entertainment company specializing in live sports, events and music.”

During his six-year stint at AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), Wu worked in global brand partnerships, starting with Major League Soccer and the LA Galaxy. He worked his way up to global partnerships, overseeing sports properties — including the L.A. Kings (of the NHL) and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers — and focusing on music festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach.

A potential new path caught his attention: gaming and esports. “I saw this event called League of Legends World Championship sell out the Staples Center” (now Crypto.com Arena), he recalls. “A data report came through listing average ticket prices as higher than those for the Justin Bieber concert the following week.” The extensive audience for gaming was suddenly on his radar. “I wondered, ‘Who are these people? Why is there such a crazy fandom?’”

Delving into research, Wu became fascinated by the industry. “I’d thought my career could have stayed at AEG forever, but I wanted to figure out my own path and to become an innovator in what was next versus just being great in what was currently popular,” he says. “That’s part of my DNA, who I am and my motivation.” He began gravitating toward gaming with a firm belief that it was operating at the intersection of mainstream media and technology; it was the future of entertainment. “I wanted to find where that intersection was,” he says. “It landed with gaming studios and publishers.”

With this discovery, Wu began approaching studios and publishers looking to break into the gaming world. He kept bumping into the same message. Major gaming publishers were looking to hire either someone with gaming experience who had previously worked with a publisher or else MBAs who could bring a different perspective to their overall scope of business. “It was at this point that I decided to pursue an MBA as a way to fast-track and pivot my career.”

Anderson topped his interest list. “It was a lifelong dream of mine to go to UCLA,” Wu says. “Being California-born and bred, I knew I wanted to stay in the state and for my network to lie in Los Angeles. I felt Anderson’s network was the strongest.”

He’d already noted there were clubs and groups at Anderson dedicated to entertainment and, beyond that, entertainment gaming had a seat at the table. “At a high level, Anderson had a holistic business perspective on how the gaming industry and business worked,” Wu says. “It also had the resources and network to try to place students at major studios and publishers.”

Still, Wu felt the need to undertake some due diligence. Would Anderson’s culture be a good fit? This question had him attending events where Bruin alumni were speaking. His thinking was, “Schools say they have a strong network, but when alumni come back and give their time to prospective and current students, that makes a true statement.”

Pushing Wu’s choice over the top was Anderson alumnus Chris Schnakenberg (’09), senior vice president of global platform strategy and partner relations at Activision Blizzard. At an Anderson entertainment event, Schnakenberg took the mic, making an instant impression. “Chris came from traditional entertainment and pivoted into gaming, similar to me,” Wu says. “I was interested in how he utilized an MBA to make that transition and asked him for a 15-minute coffee chat.”

That coffee chat turned into a monthly occurrence. “Chris was pivotal in my decision to attend Anderson and was a mentor,” Wu says. “He recommended certain classes, suggested people I should network with, and gave insight into things I should do during my time at Anderson to prepare for recruitment.”

One of these suggestions saw Wu joining the student-led Technology Business Association at Anderson (known as AnderTech) and Entertainment Management Association. “Both gave me the experience of networking with like-minded individuals pursuing similar career tracks,” he says. “To this day, I still do business with people from those communities.” The clubs also provided a glimpse into the gaming world. “Those clubs cemented my decision that gaming was the industry to which I wanted to commit my foreseeable future.”

A favorite class of Wu’s was taught by chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Peter Gruber on the ins and outs of the entertainment industry. Among the guest lecturers was Rich Paul, the founder and CEO of Klutch Sports Group and current co-head of sports at United Talent Agency. Wu found Paul’s talk about being a sports agent aspirational. Little did he know they would one day work in side-by-side UTA buildings.

Schnakenberg’s mentorship didn’t end with Anderson suggestions. “Later, he helped me navigate my way into the world of gaming,” says Wu, “and when I did go through recruitment, he referred me for my role at Activision.” In February 2018, Wu came on board at Activision Blizzard as manager of global brand partnerships and integrative marketing, working with franchises that included Call of Duty, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

In 2020, Wu was promoted to senior manager. “During my time at Activision, I brought on UTA as an agency of record to help with brand partnerships to counteract the boom of Fortnite,” he explains. “Fortnite was integrating traditional Hollywood IP into what they were doing and disrupting gaming as a whole. The intersection of how that was happening was in the talent agency world.”

Choosing UTA to support Activision initiatives made sense to Wu. Working there was a former colleague from his AEG days, Mike Lee, along with and Damon Lau, who previously co-founded Everyday Influencers with Lee. “My first day at AEG I met Mike, who was leaving to start a gaming management firm with Damon,” Wu says. When curiosity about gaming struck, Wu approached the two for insight. “They told me the best way to get into the space was to do it yourself.”

Lee and Lau attempted to lure Wu into joining them to help launch and scale their management firm. Wu declined. “I decided to go to business school instead.” Lee and Lau’s management firm was later acquired by UTA, where Lee is currently head of talent, gaming and esports and Lau is head of gaming and esports.

Collaborating spurred a creative surge in the trio. “We were working on a ton of innovative things, but were restricted to one or two titles,” Wu says. Lee and Lau broached a question for Wu. In the larger scheme of the creator economy, could he see the direction entertainment and gaming were moving? If so, shouldn’t he be at the forefront? They asked if he would consider joining them at UTA. This time Wu made the jump. “It felt like the perfect opportunity to be a part of what I believe is the future of entertainment, marketing and advertising, which is within the creator economy.”

Wu says Anderson’s impact on his career has been overarching, including his outlook on business and how he operates. “To push industries forward, you have to be innovative,” he says. “What makes Anderson so special is it pushes you to be entrepreneurial and to think about how to disrupt business as a whole.”

Anderson’s ethos of sharing success paid off as well. “I remember going through an accounting class and had never taken accounting in my life. At Anderson, I was able to lean on classmates who were former CPAs for help. That willingness to give help was important at Anderson.” He’s witnessed a similar culture at UTA. “I look at UTA as the ultimate business school, where you're surrounded by people from different backgrounds and industry professions, and we’re all teaching each other and collaborating toward a common goal,” he says. “I think the collaboration culture within Anderson made the transition into larger entertainment a lot easier.”

That very form of collaboration came into play during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. UTA immediately rallied around colleagues and clients, lending support. Taking things further, UTA looked at how to move these businesses forward by seizing opportunities in audio, digital, podcasts, social networks and gaming — lucrative forms of entertainment that might have been overlooked. Wu cites some eye-opening numbers. “When I was part of the Call of Duty franchise, they grossed $500 million during the opening weekend launch. Call of Duty grosses over a billion dollars annually, and it’s an annual release,” he says.

One of the major differences between films and games is the social aspect, especially when it comes to younger generations. “Gaming is a medium where you can socially play and communicate with friends in real time while consuming entertainment,” Wu says. “Games like Fortnite, Call of Duty and Roblox blend in all assets of entertainment, including concerts.” A prime example: UTA brokered Marshmello’s appearance in Fortnite. “That was the first real big blip of how music can intersect into gaming,” Wu says. “People are attending these cultural events in digital formats to become part of the experience.”

Listen to Wu’s excitement when he talks about gaming and it’s contagious. “The world of gaming isn’t just playing Super Mario Brothers or Fortnite with friends.” What is it? For those dreaming up ideas, the sky’s the limit. Or, as Wu says, “How can you scale entertainment IP to a more global audience? Gaming is a playground for all of it — film, TV, music and new technology all in one place. It’s the entertainment of the future.”