Zynga leadership crisis deepens with departure of CFO

The Zynga logo on the front of a brick building.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Farmville developer Zynga has lost yet another senior staff member, chief financial officer David Wehner.

The latest departure follows a number of high profile resignations in recent months, including COO Grant Schappert, chief creative officer Mike Verdu, vice president of studios Bill Mooney and vice president of marketing Brian Birtwistle. The company also closed its Boston office in October in an attempt to cut costs and buoy market confidence.

Wehner oversaw Zynga’s initial public offering last December, which valued the company at $8.9 billion (£5.98 billion). However, the company subsequently missed earnings expectations for two consecutive quarters and its share price tumbled by almost 80 per cent.

Wehner has now joined Facebook as vice president of corporate finance and business planning and will be replaced by accounting executive, Mark Vranesh.

Additional new appointments include David Ko, who will oversee mobile games, in his position of COO, which had been vacant since Schappert’s resignation in August. Steven Chiang, who led the development of Bubble Safari, ChefVille and FarmVille 2, has been promoted to president of games and Barry Cottle, formerly a business and corporate development executive, has been named chief revenue officer.

In a note to employees, also published on the company’s blog, CEO Mark Pincus, said: “These changes come at an important time. We are positioning ourselves for long-term growth and I’m confident that we have the breadth and depth of management talent to deliver on our mission of connecting the world through games.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but it’s been great to see so many of you step forward to put us on the move again,” he added.

Jane McCallion
Deputy Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's deputy editor, specializing in cloud computing, cyber security, data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Deputy Editor, she held the role of Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialise in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.