Ebbe Altberg, Ambitious & Inspiring CEO of Linden Lab, Dies After Long Bout With Illness -- MULTIPLE UPDATES: Added Personal Tributes from Philip Rosedale, Blueberry & Strawberry Linden, His Moral Leadership & How He Discovered Second Life Through His Son

Here's an announcement from Linden Lab that I've been dreading to write about for over two years:

Ebbe Altberg started with Linden Lab as our CEO on February 5th, 2014.  He took the helm of the company and immediately went to work on reinvigorating our spirit and culture.  Ebbe brought a profound openness, and transparency in his operation which was key and that had many effects on all of us internally, and externally.  Lindens were encouraged to be part of the vibrant community in Second Life, to participate in and to cherish it as part of our daily duties... As I am here before you today, it is with profound sadness that I share with you Ebbe passed away yesterday evening restfully and surrounded by the love of his family. 

What this means for the future of Second Life, recently purchased by a massive holding company, is a conversation for next week. What I'd rather do now is talk about Ebbe, who in my opinion was the most ambitious and inspiring CEOs of Linden Lab since Philip Rosedale himself. He galvanized the community and the company around a new vision to energize virtual worlds, and boosted company morale beaten badly by lack of revenue growth, layoffs, and the entrance and quick exit of two CEOs before him. (It's why the company made T-shirts for employees emblazoned with Ebbe's immortal words, "We are still the shit when it comes to virtual worlds.")

Also worth noting that Ebbe guided the company through rough waters while dealing with his illness since at least 2019:

After posting my March 2019 interview with him (watch above), many readers noted his extreme weight loss. Several insiders subsequently went into more detail with me about his illness, but in my view, that was a private matter for Ebbe and his family to deal with. What surprised and impressed me is that Ebbe soldiered on since then, still leading the company through several major (and often painful) shifts, including:

• The sale of Sansar. 
• The final deployment of Second Life to the Amazon cloud.
• One or two rounds of layoffs.
• The launch of spinoff payments company Tilia.
• The sale of Linden Lab itself.

One insider told me that his illness  didn't undo him, but rather, gave him a serene confidence in his mission and his life course. Second Life seems set to survive as long as its established users keep using it, and that is in great part a credit to Ebbe. I only got to meet with him in person that one time in March 2019, and found him warm, ebullient, and youthful despite his illness, eager to show me with boyish enthusiasm the latest inventions he and his team were working on. All my condolences to his family, friends, and the staff at Linden Lab.

Update, 1:35pm PT: Gizem McDuff, owner of the major Second Life fashion brand Blueberry, posted this to her Facebook:

While respecting his privacy, as a member of this community, you should know that he worked tirelessly, selflessly, quietly to set up a bright future for Second Life under the circumstances he was in. I will forever be grateful for all that he has done for our community and I hope we can honor him by supporting Linden Lab staff as they navigate through the path forward. Rest in eternal peace, Ebbe.

Update, 2:00pm: Strawberry Linden, who was recruited to Linden Lab after becoming Second Life's most popular YouTuber, says this: "One thing I'll never forget about Ebbe is how genuinely warm he was when I met him at the office in California. The way he spoke to me and listened to me, I felt heard, and I could feel his love and enthusiasm for Second Life. It was absolutely wonderful to have him as a CEO, and I am going to deeply miss him."

Update 2, 2:40pm: Linden Lab founder and former CEO Philip Rosedale sent me this tribute: "I can't say enough about Ebbe. He was such a warm, smart, optimistic person who was loved by everyone he came into contact with. I will miss him a lot, and we were so lucky to have him."

Update 3, 3:45pm: Another point worth remembering is Ebbe's strong moral leadership of the company -- under his guidance, Linden Lab was one of the first prominent tech companies (and the first VR company) to strongly and publicly condemn Trump's racist anti-immigration policies in strong terms back in February 2017, along with this photo of the startup's diverse staff (relative to most technology firms):

We at Linden Lab are extremely disappointed in and adamantly opposed to Trump’s recent executive order on immigration. We reject racism, intolerance, and xenophobia.

We are proud to include immigrants among our leadership, colleagues, and customers, as well as our families, friends, and communities. We value diversity, compassion, and understanding, and we are proud that our products enable people to come together and form meaningful connections regardless of differences in their offline lives.

Trump’s order is counter to what we value and antithetical to American ideals. We join the many voices calling on the US government to remove this restriction as quickly as possible and to refrain from imposing additional barriers that threaten opportunities for immigrants, under-represented minorities, and women.

More here.

Update 4, 6:00pm: In my first interview with Ebbe in 2014, he talked about he learned about Second Life and fell in love with it -- through his son:

Though he is Linden Lab’s new CEO now, one of Ebbe Altberg’s first experiences with Second Life occurred over 10 years ago, and as it happens, actually involved a violation of Second Life policy. It was around that time, you see, that Altberg’s son fell in love with Second Life, and became an avid builder there. Which is usually a fine thing, but here’s the problem: Altberg’s son was a young teen at the time, and back then they were strictly not allowed:

“So yeah, he was underage,” Altberg admits now, “so SL booted him correctly.”

Altberg convinced then CEO Philip Rosedale to be lenient, but by that time, Altberg’s young son had become a well-known content creator in Second Life, and had revealed his age to his adult collaborators in SL (who were very surprised to learn how young he was). So Altberg’s son was booted from the main grid of Second Life, and when Teen Second Life opened around 2005, found himself exiled there. Frustrated by how comparably poor the quality of content was there, Ebbe’s boy began working with someone in the main grid to export content from Second Life proper to Second Life’s teenage wasteland. (As one of the early teen users described it to me, back in the day.)

Despite all that, Ebbe's son stayed engaged in Second Life for a couple years, and even co-founded an in-world design company. And being among the first explorers of Teen Second Life, one of that world’s original islands was even named after the avatar of Ebbe Altberg’s son. And Ebbe Altberg watched all this amazed: “For a kid to have this experience so early was fantastic,” as he puts it now.

Much more here.

Comments

[Seaone Bunyip]

RIP you will be missed!!!

[Tom Boellstorff]

I'm so sorry to hear this news, and his family is in my thoughts. He was an incredible CEO for Linden Lab. When making our documentary about disability in Second Life he was incredibly generous with his time and insights—one of many cases where I was able to interact with him. His warmth and brilliance were amazing. -Tom Boellstorff

[Ilsa Hesse]

So sad. Nothing but the best for his family. Send them our well wishes, Hamlet.
I will think on him for a bit.

[NTropyS]

My condolences to his family, friends, and everyone at Linden Labs. I hope his legacy inspires many people, for years to come.

[Soda Sullivan]

What a guy.

I do not think it is an overstatement to say that Altberg was Linden Lab's best CEO and SecondLife's best "leader' since its creator. As I read this news about his ongoing battle with illness, I keep thinking to myself, "He was this sick and he could have easily been doing ANYTHING else but he chose to stick around and put up with us lunatics." We are so lucky he did and we should all be eternally grateful.

Ebbe certainly did a lot to repair bridges between users and Linden Lab, and he did it with a sort of paternalistic view of the virtual world. Clearly, it meant A LOT to him. We were very lucky to have him lead us and he will be impossible to replace and truly missed. Let's all send our most positive thoughts to his family and his friends.

[sirhc desantis]

April Linden broke me by posting 'My heart has joined the thousand'

This eternal noob will miss him. He sort of understood us. In all the good ways

[Daniel Voyager]

Ebbe will be deeply be missed. A big loss for Second Life :(

[Jane Teeague-Urbach]

As far as I'm concerned, he saved Second Life. He understood that it was the shared creativity...of creating a world together that is the essence of SL and fostered education, creativity and upenness. I feel like I knew him even though I didn't really. I know I'll miss him, as will SL.

[Opera2]

Thank you so much for taking such good care of this amazing "game" for all this time, I never had the opportunity to meet you in-game or in person. Rest in peace and thanks again.

[Rebekah Recreant]

We're saddened by the news of Ebbe's passing. You brought so much to SL. Love and prayers to your family ♥

[battledudes io]

My deepest condolences to his family, friends and everyone at Linden Labs. he is a responsible and exemplary director. I hope many people will learn from his lifestyle

[Iggy 1.0]

Just learned this. My condolences to his family and co-workers. Ebbe took over a platform having difficulty, and his leadership kept SL going now, two decades on.

That is an amazing accomplishment in today's market for online experiences.

[Fopper]

My heartfelt condolences go out to all his family, friends, and even to all of my fellow noobs. May God bless and protect each of you.

[Anna]

May he rest in peace I love aecound life he was amazing creator

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[tandt]

Ebbe Altberg is such a great person i know her story very Inspiring CEO Of Linden Lab. May he rests in peace he is a great creator

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[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Eeek. Hamlet, you need to take a look at the dozen or so fake spam comments on this article of yours!! They need a major cleanup act!

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I feel ya! Typepad makes it difficult to delete old comments but think they've all been nuked.

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[Helen Hadsell]

Hard to believe it's almost 2 years since Ebbe passed away. I will always keep him in my thoughts.

[Gamer]

Hard to believe it's almost 2 years since Ebbe passed away. https://iogamers.org/

[Ehaam]

So sad. Nothing but the best for his family. Send them our well wishes, Hamlet....

[okey]

two years have passed. This story is so sad to me, Rest in piece

[Andabata Thor]

Always in our hearts

[elmu]

thanks foe this post

[Registrationkraft]

My heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, and everyone at Linden Labs. May his legacy continue to inspire many for years to come

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My condolences to his family and friends.