Troubled social networking giant MySpace has lost another key executive with the recent departure of John Faith, until recently General Manager and Vice President of MySpace Mobile. His resignation hasn’t been announced yet (nor has his LinkedIn profile been updated), but we’ve confirmed hallway rumors that he jumped ship at the end of January 2010 both with the man in question and the company he used to work for.
Faith has moved to Austin, Texas – just in time for SXSW – where he has joined local startup WhaleShark Media as SVP of Engineering.
That company’s still in stealth mode, but was founded by former Bankrate COO Cotter Cunningham, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on that one.
It’s worth noting that another key member of the MySpace Mobile team, Ulf Waschbusch, also left the company in July 2009 – he recently landed at gaming startup Garena.
I asked MySpace who was running all things mobile now that both employees walked away from the company, and they informed me that stepping in for Faith is Nat Brown. In case you’re not familiar with that name, Brown was once one of Microsoft’s foremost technical minds – he created and evangelized the ActiveX/COM object model in the early nineties and went on to play a crucial role in the creation of XML, DHTML, and the first Xbox.
Brown went on to do a brief stint as CTO at CAC Media before serving the same role at online music startup iLike, which was acquired by MySpace in August 2009.
MySpace says Brown will henceforth be taking charge of the Mobile division, and that we can expect a lot from that particular unit in the “very, very near future”.
We’ll see.
MySpace is one of the world’s largest social networks, with about 125 million users. Originally inspired by Friendster, MySpace quickly grew to become the world’s largest social network, before being overtaken by Facebook. User pages are highly customizable and support integration with widgets such as Slide or YouTube. MySpace provides users with a way to connect around content and culture. MySpace was started as a side project of the internet marketing company eUniverse (now called Intermix Media) in August...
John Faith is the Senior Vice President of Technology for WhaleShark Media, an Austin based, venture backed company focused on the online deal and coupon space. Previously, John was the General Manager and Vice President of MySpace Mobile, and was responsible for all aspects pertaining to the growth and success of the business unit. Prior to his role as GM, he contributed to multiple initiatives for the company as vice president of engineering.
Nat Brown is the CTO at iLike. Nat created and evangelized the ActiveX/COM object model in the early 90s. He had a primary role in the creation of XML, DHTML, and the first XBox. He was at Microsoft from 1990 to 1999. After retiring from Microsoft, he served briefly as CTO at CAC Media, which sells software services for set-top boxes, and has informally advised numerous startups.
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