Lester Chen

Lester Chen is the Head of Gaming, Americas at YouTube, where he leads the company’s initiatives for driving growth of its esports, mobile gaming and VR/AR gaming businesses. As part of this, he heads efforts for securing alliances with global gaming publishers, top gaming content creators, live streamers and esports leagues. Previously, he served as the Global Head of Esports at Google, where he focused on building the company’s livestream and VOD space, which included securing strategic licensing deals with premier tournament organizers, such as ESL and FaceIT. While at Google, he also launched several 360/VR projects surrounding Riot Games' 2016 World Finals, as well as several Mobile Gaming tournaments in collaboration with Supercell. Prior to Google, Lester held positions with Machinima and Universal McCann. Lester is a former professional gamer with more than 10 years of experience in the esports scene. In 2018, he was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the “30 under 30” to watch in the gaming industry. He holds a B.A. in Communications and Journalism and B.S. in Communications, Journalist and Related Programs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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