NEW YORK — A general partner with a venture capital franchise focused on companies active in video game studios, NFTs, social platforms and financial marketplaces has taken a seat on the Board of Directors for the nation’s largest creator and distributor of audio content.
Sam Englebardt, of Galaxy Interactive, is being seated on the iHeartMedia board.
In a press release, iHeartMedia lauded Englebardt, calling him an “accomplished media and technology investor and content producer” with “deep experience at the intersection of content and exponential technologies, including the metaverse and web3.”
The metaverse is a particular growth area of interest of iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, who said Englebardt’s expertise and understanding of web3, exponential technologies and the potential of emerging consumer tech platforms like NFTs, tokens and shared virtual experiences “will be uniquely valuable to us” as iHeart’s presence into web3 and the metaverse widens.”
Prior to Galaxy Digital, Englebardt was a Partner and Managing Director at Lambert Media Group (LMG), where he where helped source and oversaw investments in Rave Cinemas (sold to Cinemark), Gold Class Cinemas (sold to iPic, now controlled by the Alabama Teachers Retirement Fund following that company’s 2019 bankruptcy filing) and Demarest Films and managed a portfolio of early-stage media tech venture investments.
