In IPO-Signaling Move, Zynga Adds Fancy CFO
Zynga, the fast-growing social gaming site, said it had hired Allen & Co. investment banker David Wehner (pictured here) as its new CFO.
He replaces Mark Vranesh, who becomes Chief Accounting Officer, reporting to Wehner.
The move is yet another indication that the San Francisco-based start-up is prepping for an initial public offering, rounding out its executive team, which is headed by founder and CEO Mark Pincus.
Pincus and Zynga have been quite busy of late, landing hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, striking deals with Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG) and international partners such as SoftBank, as the company seeks to expand its distribution from Facebook, the social networking platform where it first took off.
Zynga also recently signed a five-year agreement with Facebook.
Zynga said it made the hire because of its longstanding relationship with Wehner, who has been a managing director at the New York-based Allen & Co. for nine years.
One thing is most clear: Zynga is filling out its executive team to take the business to the next level.
Which is, of course, an IPO.
Here is Wehner’s official bio:
Dave Wehner is joining Zynga from Allen & Company LLC, an investment bank focused on media and technology, where he has worked since 2001. As a Managing Director at Allen, Dave led corporate finance teams responsible for capital raises and M&A transactions with a focus on the firm’s Silicon Valley clients. Dave was also involved extensively with Allen’s principal investing activity, and sponsored the firm’s investments in a number of technology companies including Pandora, Quantcast and StubHub. Prior to joining Allen & Company, Dave worked as the VP Corporate Development for an e-commerce start up and at the technology-focused investment banking firm Hambrecht & Quist (now part of JP Morgan), where he was involved in numerous M&A and financing transactions. Earlier in his career, Dave worked as a strategy consultant with the global consulting firm Monitor Company where he worked extensively throughout Asia.
Dave earned a BS in Chemistry from Georgetown University and an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University where he was a National Science Foundation fellow.
