Owen Van Natta

Owen Van Natta
Residence Bay Area
Education University of California, Santa Cruz (BA, English and American literature, 1992)[1]
Occupation Director at Boku mobile payments[2][3]
Founder, Managing Partner at 415, LLC[2][4]
Known for Former COO at Facebook
Former CEO at MySpace
Former Executive Vice President of Business at Zynga
Website http://www.415.com

Owen T. Van Natta (born November 12, 1969)[5] is an American businessman. He has held notable positions in various media companies, including Amazon.com, Facebook, Myspace and Zynga.[2] Van Natta holds a bachelor's degree in English and American literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz.[6]

As of 2016, Van Natta is reportedly a Director at Boku mobile payments.[2][3] He and Grace Stanat are founders of 415, LLC, founded in 2013.[2][4]

Career

From June 1998 to August 2005, Van Natta was Vice President of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at Amazon.com, where he managed global marketing programs and strategic partnerships. He was part of the founding team of A9.com, the Amazon.com search company, and was responsible for site operations and sponsored-link advertising.[7]

Van Natta became the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, where he focused on revenue operations, business development, and strategic partnerships from September 2005 to February 2008.[8] At the time of his departure, his title was Chief Revenue Officer.[9] He went on to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Project Playlist in 2008, a music sharing website allowing users to search for music, create custom playlists, and share the content with friends.[10]

In April 2009, Van Natta became Chief Executive Officer of MySpace, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s strategic vision and the execution of its global business initiatives.[11] Van Natta created new features as a part of his refocusing of strategy, and tried to move MySpace from a social networking platform to an entertainment content distribution platform.[12] By the end of 2009, NewsCorp's Fox Interactive Media business posted revenue of $226 million and profits of $7 million, the vast majority of it from MySpace.[13] After spending ten months in his position, he stepped down and joined Zynga in February 2010.[14][15][16][17][18]

Van Natta joined Zynga, an Internet company that makes online social games, as Executive Vice President of Business and as a member of the Board of Directors in August 2010.[19] He was responsible for the company’s revenue strategy, corporate development, international expansion and brand. He resigned from Zynga on November 17, 2011.[20][21][22]

As of 2016, Van Natta is reportedly a Director at Boku mobile payments.[2][3] He and Grace Stanat are founders of 415, LLC, founded in 2013.[2]

References

  1. Thomas, Owen (April 24, 2009). "MySpace Job Is Sweet Revenge for Ex-Facebook Exec". gawker.com. Gawker. Retrieved September 15, 2016. ... his 1992 graduation from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a BA in English and American literature and his 1998 arrival at Amazon.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Owen Van Natta - Director @ Boku, Inc. - crunchbase". CrunchBase. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "BOKU Company Profile - Financial Information, Competitors and Executives". datafox.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Docusign co-founder raises $8.6M for new business intelligence startup MetaBrite". Geek Wire. February 11, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  5. "The SeeMe.com Blog » Come see us ! XoXo <3". Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  6. Arrington, Michael. "Hiring Of New MySpace CEO Settles Many Old Scores". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  7. Robischon, Noah (April 23, 2009). "Former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta Taking Over at MySpace". FastCompany.
  8. "Owen Van Natta to Leave Facebook". allthingsd.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  9. "Ex-Facebook exec takes helm at Project Playlist". cnet.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  10. "Project Playlist hires Owen Van Natta and raises $20M, but for what?". Venture Beat. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  11. Arrington, Michael. "News Corp Pulls The Trigger: Owen Van Natta Now Runs The Circus. Err, MySpace". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  12. Barnett, Emma. "Owen Van Natta: superman builds platform for MySpace success". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  13. Steel, Emily; Ovide, Shira. "Van Natta Named MySpace Chief". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 15, 2016. (subscription required)
  14. "Former Myspace CEO Owen Van Natta now former Zynga executive". engadget.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  15. Kincaid, Jason. "MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta Steps Down". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  16. "After 10 Months as MySpace CEO, Owen Van Natta Out". thewrap.com. February 10, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  17. "MySpace chief executive Owen Van Natta leaves after less than a year". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  18. Copeland, Michael. "MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta steps down - Feb. 11, 2010". Fortune.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  19. KerryOnWorld August 2010
  20. "Zynga executive Owen Van Natta resigns". Reuters. November 17, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  21. Raice, Shayndi (November 19, 2011). "Zynga Executive Van Natta Resigns". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  22. "Former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta Leaves Zynga Executive Role". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.