Zynga founder Mark Pincus has decided to take a step back from the day-to-day operations of the social gaming giant. This move was apparently a long time coming, as he and CEO Don Mattrick had been working through a period of transition over the past 10 months:
“I had wanted to stay on doing the product role for a while, because I wanted to put my hands on the product and make sure the company continued to also pursue its social mission,” said Pincus. “Don and some of the existing team and new people really embraced that and, so, ultimately a ship is better with one captain putting a hand on the wheel.”
As replacements for Pincus, it seems Mattrick is bringing in some allies from his Microsoft days. Alex Garden, founder of Relic Entertainment and former Xbox Live General Manager, will be taking over operations immediately. Along with Garden, some other new faces at Zynga include Chief Visual Officer Henry LaBounta, Jennifer Nuckles as Chief Marketing Officer, and David Lee as Chief Financial/Accounting Officer.
It would seem that Zynga is making changes from the top down, and it will be interesting to see how that affects their products in the coming months and years.
