Dreamworks CEO joins Zynga’s board of directors

Zynga has been on a tear of late, hiring well known game developers and scooping up several studios. But now the company is tapping the talents of those outside of the games industry by adding Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg to its board of directors.

Katzenberg co-founded Dreamworks in 1994, and prior to that he was a studio head at Walt Disney, where he helped launch such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Lion King. Dreamworks, meanwhile, went on to release notable animated films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar.

According to Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, he new that Katzenberg would be a good fit for Zynga when he suggested that ShrekVille could be the biggest hit of 2011.

“I see a lot of similarities between DreamWorks Animation and Zynga, far beyond our love of animals,” Pincus wrote on the Zynga blog. “DreamWorks Animation is a revolutionary technology company, a recognized consumer brand, and at its core, a media company. It’s easy to see the value that Jeffrey will add to Zynga as we grow and look for more ways to delight our players.

“In fact, he’s immediately sprung into action with his first assignment: finding our seventh board member. I hear that both Jack Black and Mike Myers are incredibly interested”

Andrew Webster