After two weeks of heavy hiring in social gaming, this week is back to normal. Even so, a number of the major social developers have come to see new faces according to data from LinkedIn, including the relatively quiet wooga and iWin. Nevertheless, most companies, save Zynga, only saw a handful of new hires, but of all of them, iWin and RockYou! appear to have the largest changes. The former has brought on Rohan Sardesai, who comes joins as their new Sr. Director of Product Management for Social Games for the former. The latter company gets Ryo Ishizuka, who becomes RockYou! Asia’s new Chief Operating Officer.
There is also a late addition to the list, as developer FreshPlanet has also informed us of two new hires of their own, the now Chief Design Officers of Naomi Clark and Eric Zimmerman.
As always, if your company is bringing on new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post.
For those searching for new jobs, be sure to check out our Inside Network Job Board.
Here’s this week’s list:
- Rohan Sardesai — According to what iWin tells us, Sardesai will be joining the team as their new Sr. Director of Product Management for Social Games. Prior to this, Sardesai was the Director of Product Management for LOLapps. Among other duties, he will be overseeing iWin’s Family Feud team.
- Naomi Clark — As noted already, Naomi Clark joins FreshPlanet as one of its two new Chief Design Officers. She comes with 20 years of experience working and collaborating with companies such as PBS, Disney, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and a significant number more.
- Eric Zimmerman — Also joining the FreshPlanet team as the other Chief Design Officer, is Eric Zimmerman. Zimmerman is best known as the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab.
- Phuong Vu — Formerly a Senior Sales Development Specialist for LinkedIn, Vu is now a Recruiter for the social developers at Kabam.
- P.T. Schroeder — Schroeder joins Kabam as their new Marketing – Visual Designer. Prior to this, Schroeder was dealing with Car Audio Sales at Best Buy.
- Sam McLellan — Coming from YouTube, where he was an Online Operations Associate for its Partner Program, McLellan is now a User Experience Associate for Kabam.
- Sebastian Tleye — Previously a “Programador” for Équila SRL, Tleye joins Metrogames as their newest iPhone Games Developer.
- Adam Robertson — In an internal change, stemming from Disney’s acquisition of Playdom, Robertson’s official role changes from Director of Technical Operations at Playdom, to Technical Operations, Playdom for the Disney Interactive Media Group.
- Tamir Nadav — Nadav joins the Playdom team as their newest Game Designer. Before this, he was a Game Designer for Vigil Games.
- Steve Cartwright — Now the “GM Redwood City Studio” for RockYou!, Cartwright was formerly the Manager of Interactive Design for Gazillion Entertainment.
- Ryo Ishizuka — Technically an internal change, Ishizuka is now the Chief Operating Officer for RockYou! Asia. Prior to this, he was a Senior Architect for RockYou!.
- Juha Lindell — Their first noted hire in a little while, Lindell joins wooga as their latest Product Managers. Prior to this, Lindell was an Associate Product Manager of Social Games for Digital Chocolate.
- Matt Byerly — In an internal change, Byerly switches roles to that of a Network Engineer at Zynga. He was a Linux System Admin.
- Sathish Sathyan Chindarankandy — Chindarankandy joins Zynga as a new Snr. Release Engineer. Before this, Chindarankanday was a Software Engineer for Cognizant Technology Solutions.
- Matt Snow — Formerly an Experience Design Manager for Customer Engagements at Adobe Systems, Snow joins Zynga as an Art Director.
- Michelle Murrett — Now a Technical Research Recruiter for Zynga, Murret was previously a Sr. Software Engineer for ALX Global LLC.
- Dwayne Anderson — Anderson leaves his role as a Quality Assurance Analyst for Eveo to join Zynga as Quality Assurance.
- Peter Chapman — A former Programmer for Bonfire Studios, Chapman joins Zynga under the same Programmer role.
- Brandom Dicks — Dicks joins Zynga as their newest User Interface Designer. Prior to this, he was a User Interface Artist for Cryptic Studios.
Source: Inside Social Games
Thursday, October 21, 2010