Zynga Inc Restructuring Leads To Three More Exec Departures

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Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has seen three more executives depart this month, according to reports from Venture Beat. Those who left the game maker are Words With Friends lead Travis Boatman, head of acquisitions Terence Fung, and former head of the company’s Ville franchise Steve Chiang.

However, the departures reflects the tough decisions taken by CEO Don Mattrick to strengthen up the top-level of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). Back in April, the departure of CFO Mark Vranesh was also announced.

Zynga Inc’s prolonged restructuring

Although there was no comment from the company over the issue, a source close the company said that Mattrick is aiming towards reorganization of the company to revive itself in the mobile gaming industry. Some execs were also assigned different roles as part of the reorganization.

Others who exited from the firm last year are David Ko, former chief operations officer; Colleen McCreary, former chief people officer; former chief game designer Brian Reynolds; chief technology officer Cadir Lee; and casino games head Jesse Janosov.

It is widely known that Mattrick still works for Mark Pincus, but he has a free hand now and is authorized to take any action ensuring the success of the gaming company. It seems positive that the CEO has been given the latitude to appoint whoever he feels is best for the job. The recent exits, however, also suggest that everything has not settled down in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), where employment declined to 1,991 employees compared to 3,500 a couple of years back. Reshuffling of the management is a usual practice on the arrival of new CEO, but at Zynga the turnover has been extensive.

Appointments by Mattrick

Mattrick is not only showing some executives the exit doors, but is also welcoming new talent from various fields. Recently, Academy Award-nominated visual artist Henry LaBounta was appointed as the chief visual officer and Jennifer Nuckles was hired as the marketing officer. Last fall, Clive Downie came in as the chief operating officer.

David Lee, who worked previously with Best Buy, also joined Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) as the chief financial officer. Former EA executive Pauline Moller was appointed as the vice president of studio operations. Chris Plummer, formerly of DeNA, joined in March as the vice president of games. Stan Chow, formerly with EA Japan, joined Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) as the general manager and Larry LaPierre, former executive on EA’s Need for Speed games, joined as the general manager.

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