The former general manager of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), Reed Shaffner joined Scopely, a startup mobile gaming company to lead its product team. In his position, Shaffner will supervise Scopely’s infrastructure and games from its developer partners.
Shaffner was the 2nd exec from Zynga to depart
Shaffner was the second executive hired by Scopely from Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). In March, Andy Kleinman joined the startup as chief business officer. He was tasked to lead Scopely’s business and corporate development and to develop partnerships with third party developers and brands.
Schaffner and Kleinman were among the many executives who left Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) as the social gaming business struggles. Some of them include former general managers Roy Sehgal and Steve Schrek, former chief financial officer David Wehner, and Mike Verdu, a former chief creative officer who started his own mobile-games company. Last April, Dan Porter resigned from his position as vice president of general management after revealing that Zynga copied games from other developers.
Shaffner’s Job at Zynga
In his previous role as general manager, Shaffner supervised the social gaming company’s mobile platform and the ‘Zynga with Friends’ network. Prior to that, he served as senior product manager for the company. He also served as product director for Zynga.com, and lead product manager of Café World. He helped in the establishment of Zynga’s studio in San Diego.
Shaffner was a senior product manager for Bing Social Search at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) before joining Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). He is an associate partner at Ironfire Capital, an activist hedge fund that invests in early stage mobile, big data and cloud computing start-ups in the United States and in China.
Walter Driver, CEO of Scopely described Shaffner as “one of the fastest rising stars in the gaming world.”
In addition, Driver said, “We were particularly excited by his understanding of both products from a game optimization standpoint and a platform standpoint. He will know how to empower developer partners to innovate on an ongoing basis with the tools we are giving them.”
On the other hand, Shaffner expressed his excitement in joining Scopely citing the success of the startup with its own games as well as the Mini Golf Matchup.
“I think it’s amazing to get to work with not just games but also an entire platform to empower third party developers to make remarkable content, especially in mobile,” said Shaffner.
