CrowdStar Adds EA, Playdom Vets To Executive Team

Happy Aquarium developer CrowdStar appointed four game industry veterans to its management team: Pete Hawley as Product Development VP, Mark Hull as Product Marketing and Community VP, Mike Ouye as Monetization and Merchandising VP, and Robert Einspruch as Business Development director. Hawley joins the social games studio after spending a year and a half at Electronic Arts as vice president of Product Development there. Prior to that, he led product development at Criterion Games, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and Lionhead Studios. Hull has more than 14 years of experience building "mass-market community" and gaming businesses, most recently serving as vice president of Product Management at virtual spaces firm Vivaty. He's headed product management teams at iWin and Yahoo, too. Mike Ouye spent less than a year at rival social game developer Playdom (Social City, Sorority Life) before joining CrowdStar. And Einspruch has over 15 years of experience in finance, product management, and business development working at companies like Apple, Amazon, and MumboJumbo. Headquartered just outside San Francisco (previously headquartered in Dublin, Ireland) and founded in 2008, CrowdStar reaches more than 50 million gamers with its popular titles on Facebook like Happy Aquarium, Happy Island, Happy Pets, and Zoo Paradise. "Mike, Pete, Mark, and Robert share the singular vision of CrowdStar as an agile, creative company gunning to be number one," says CrowdStar CEO Niren Hiro. "Their global and entrepreneurial perspective is a perfect match for CrowdStar as we continue to scale with great games that delight our users."