Bruce Davis

Who is Bruce Davis?

Bruce L. Davis is an American businessman, currently CEO and chairman of Digimarc. Formerly the head of both Imagic and Activision, he is known for his role in the development of the video game industry.

A native of New York, Davis earned a B.S. in accounting and psychology and an M.A. in criminal justice from University at Albany, SUNY, and a law degree from Columbia University. He began his professional career by establishing the intellectual property practice at the firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in San Francisco, California. He assumed leadership of Imagic as it was going out of business in the North American video game crash of 1983.

From 1987 to 1991, Davis was first chief operating officer, then chairman and CEO of Activision. The board of directors promoted him from senior vice president to replace Jim Levy shortly after the acquisition of Infocom, in the hopes of stemming the continuing financial damage from the crash. He had opposed the merger, and many Infocom employees believed he was deliberately working against them, changing processes that had made the game business successful.