Discord, a popular chat app, indicated a new executive director, replacing co-founder and current CEO Jason Citron.
Humam Sakhnini, who most recently acted as vice president of Activision Blizzard, managing a successful game portfolio, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, will take office on April 28, according to a company statement on Wednesday (23).
Discord, which is popular with video games and programmers, is working with banks in an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, as reported by Bloomberg.
Citron will remain on the advice of Discord and will become advisor to the new CEO.
“I am confident that passing the leadership to Humam is the right evolution to the future of Discord,” Citron said in the statement. “Your profound gaming industry experience and proven history of business scheduling while promoting genuine friendships through game and shared experiences perfectly position us for our next phase of growth.”
Citron co-founded the company with Stanislav Vishnevskiy in 2015 and helped turn it from a gamers niche application into a popular platform that now attracts more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide.
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In an interview with VentureBeatCitron said he had no specific plans for the future, but the time was right to pass the stick to a different type of executive. “I’m another builder, an early -stage guy,” he said.
Citron also stated that there are no “specific plans” for an IPO, “but, as you can imagine, hiring someone like human is a step in that direction.”
Citron did not say what his plans are immediate, but mentioned that he needs to finish Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and work on a list of other titles that require a lot of time.
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Discord recently faced increasing pressure on its child safety practices.
On Thursday (24), New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin sued the company for allegedly overdoing its child safety features.
Last year, Citron was summoned to witness to the US Senate at a hearing on the protection of online children.
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The company claims to have robust policies against behaviors that can harm children.
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