Announced yesterday afternoon, major social games player Playdom has brought seasoned Yahoo! and Microsoft executive David Sobeski on board to fill the role of Chief Technology Officer.
Prior to signing on the Playdom dotted line, Sobeski was a senior VP at Yahoo! where he worked on Yahoo!’s Open Strategy and Data platform, as well driving products and innovation for Yahoo!’s CEO. And while coming out of the Yahoo! campus 10 years ago might have been a golden stamp of approval, Sobeski is the man responsible for pushing Yahoo! to open its network to 3rd parties to drive social integration. Obviously, a valuable trait in today’s social gaming world, and a signal that Sobeski was already ahead of his time during his Yahoo! tenure.
Sobeski served various executive roles at Microsoft. He’s one of the primary drivers behind the Windows Vista experience, be that good or bad, as well as being one of the chief architects behind building mobility into Microsoft Exchange Server, another valuable trait considering Playdom’s direction (did I mention Playdom also released a new iPhone app today? Social City). Rounding out the polished list of accomplishments David was a leader in MSN.com, instrumental in building Microsoft’s Java Virtual Machine, and (cringe) the creation of Internet Explor… sigh, I can’t even finish spelling it out, but you know…that browser that is the bane of existence to developers worldwide? Yeah, that one.
In regards to the gaming industry, Sobeski, like many of us were introduced via the beloved Atari 2600, and continued on playing on every console, PC and Mac available. Sobeski has actually managed the Holy Grail. In his spare time he writes casual games for his own enjoyment for the iPhone platform. And now he’s about to get paid to do it. Score!
“We are proud to have one of the finest engineering groups in the Valley and after months of searching we’ve found someone worthy to lead it,” says John Pleasants, CEO. “David brings tremendous value to the company, and we’re thrilled to have him on board. Through his focus on creating great products for users, his patents and acquisitions, David has been one of the leaders of the technology industry for the past 20 years and we’re excited to witness his expertise first-hand.”
Tags: casual games, John Pleasants, Microsoft, playdom, Yahoo!
