The MySpace talent exodus continues, and Zynga seems to be taking more than its share. In 2010 they hired Dani Dudeck, formerly a MySpace VP, to run the communications team. Soon after former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta joined Zynga as an EVP.
Now, we’ve learned from multiple sources, they’re hired two more. Katie Geminder, a level 51 Cityville player and formerly head of product at Facebook and SVP of User Experience and Design at MySpace, joined Zynga late last year. And Christina Wodtke, GM of social at MySpace, has resigned and will start at Zynga in the next week or so.
Zynga is clearly making a push to make its games more engaging, and it seems quite willing to do so at MySpace’s expense.
Zynga did not respond to a request for comment.
Christina Wodtke is a General Manager at Zynga (/company/zynga), which she joined in January of 2011. Prior to Zynga , Christina was General Manager at Myspace, and before that she worked at LinkedIn. At Linkedin, she brought LinkedIn Events from idea to launch, redesigned Status, Network Updates and Inbox. Before Linkedin, she founded Cucina Media, and created an innovative CMS; the IAI, a thriving nonprofit, and Boxes and Arrows an independent publication on design....
Ket’s always day one, work hard and have fun mentality of the online retailer. At Amazon, she led large cross-functional and customer experience initiatives including the Amazon.com Kitchen Store, re-launch of Tab Navigation, Target.com, and the Amazon Services e-Commerce platform. In 2005 Katie returned to California to work on the Apple Online Store team as a Sr. Manager focused on content and customer experience, collaborating with engineering, marketing, and design teams to improve online shopping for Macs and iPods. Katie...
Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus and is named for his late American Bulldog, Zinga. Loyal and spirited, Zinga’s name is a nod to a legendary African warrior queen. The early supporting founding team included Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, John Doerr, Steve Schoettler, Kevin Hagan, and Andrew Trader. Zynga’s mission is connecting the world through games. Everyday millions of people interact with their friends and express their unique personalities through our...
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...
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