Management Changes

Mobile virtual gaming and social community Cellufun has named Neil Edwards as its new CEO. Most recently the founding CEO of dotMobi, Edwards is charged with developing new services and creating new revenue streams as well as expanding Cellufun's virtual world internationally.

According to Edwards, "Cellufun is at the right place at the right time to take advantage of the growing demand for paid mobile community offerings such as virtual services and messaging." He also believes that Cellufun has "one of the most engaged and rapidly growing mobile audiences," one that will lead the company to see revenues from virtual goods and messaging services quickly grow to outpace advertising as its top revenue generator.

If you tried to visit either the MobileAppsToday.com or MobileDevicesToday.com blog, you may have been surprised to find yourself here in the MobileContentToday.com blog. Both of the blogs I formerly edited have been folded into this one. Going forward, I will be contributing Mobile applications and devices stories here on MCT.

My podcast series of guest interviews will continue under a new name: MobileViews Podcast. If you subscribed to the podcast on iTunes, you should NOT need to change anything. The podcast feed will continue to work as usual. Finally, you may find me posting short-form mobile tech comments on my personal blog: MobileViews.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to serve as the Editor of MobileAppsToday and MobileDevicesToday. If you were a regular reader of one or both blogs, I hope you found useful information there. Although the MobileAppsToday and MobileDevicesToday blogs are gone, I am very proud of both the quality and quantity of information that was provided during their existence. And, I hope if you followed those two blogs in the past that you will follow MobileContentToday for continued news and information about mobile content, marketing, apps and devices.

Social games developer Zynga has named Brandon Barber to the new position of VP of marketing. Barber, who joins the company from Electronic Arts, will report to Zynga EVP of sales and business development Andrew Trader.

At EA, Barber served as senior director of global online marketing where he was responsible for the game giant’s Web services-based business model. Prior to EA, Barber headed up the product team at the original Napster.

According to Trader, since its launch just over a year ago, Zynga has "grown to a point where we needed to add a key marketing position. Brandon's combination of gaming and digital media experience makes him the ideal person to lead the charge and help build Zynga with consumers everywhere."

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has named Mike Navarre as general manager of MEF Americas. In his new position, Navarre is charged with promoting the mobile media industry association's charter to "accelerate mobile entertainment adoption, shape regulation and deliver competitive advantage to its members."

Navarre comes to the MEF with 20 years of sales and marketing experience, most recently at ContentNext.

According to MEF Americas chairman Jim Beddows, Navarre's specific tasks will include pushing the group's localization efforts; promoting such initiatives as mobile value chain analysis, content sales reporting and mobile video and "tackling industry challenges."

On the heels of the news that Marco Boerries has resigned as EVP of Connected Life at Yahoo, the company has named David Ko as his replacement. Ko is no stranger to all things Yahoo; he's been with the company for nine years, most recently serving as SVP of Yahoo Mobile, Fierce Mobile Content reports.

In his new position at the helm of Yahoo's worldwide mobile business, Ko will oversee the unit's "business, strategy and monetization teams," the article says.

Now we just have to wait and see how the corporate streamlining planned by CEO Carol Bartz plays out.

Creative mobile agency 5th Finger has named co-founder Patrick Collins as its new president. Collins, formerly the company's CTO, is charged with elevating the company's role as a "specialty mobile agency and 'mobility planning' expert."

Collins will report to former 5th Finger CEO Campbell Corfe, who will serve as executive chairman.

The company also launched a mobility planning practice. According to 5th Finger, mobility planning "taps into a user's specific context and purpose, creating utility in the process." Its mobility planners and designers will work closely with clients to help them determine how to behave" in the mobile world.

"The market needs specialist mobile agencies who can correctly think about mobility," said Collins. "5th Finger works directly with brands to deliver well-envisioned campaign results for the consumer on-the-go. 5th Finger's recognized mobility planning expertise has already received a huge response from a market that needs and wants it."

New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz hasn't even made public her plans for restructuring the company, but whatever they are, they'll have to make do without Marco Boerries. In her AllThingsD column, Kara Swisher said that Boerries, who heads up Yahoo's Connected Life business, is leaving the company.

In a post on Monday, Swisher discussed which executives would likely be gone with the restructuring; she included Boerries, who was a loyal supporter of ex-CEO Jerry Yang, on the list. Guess that's a moot point now.

Boerries reportedly used the ever-popular "personal issues" as his reason for leaving in an e-mail he sent to some of his workers.

SMS search service ChaCha has snagged Yahoo veteran Rob Wilk as its new VP of advertising sales. Wilk, who will work out of the start-up's new New York City office, will report directly to ChaCha CEO Scott Jones.

In his most recent role, Wilk served as Yahoo's director of agency sales. Prior to Yahoo, he held executive positions at Overture and Razorfish.

At ChaCha, he's charged with jumpstarting the company's national advertising efforts. ChaCha's small but impressive advertiser roster already includes McDonald's, Palm, Coca-Cola and H&R Block.

UK Mobile operator O2 has hired former Blyk chief Shaun Gregory to head up its media business, Brand Republic reports.

Gregory, who left the ad-funded mobile service Blyk last month, will be responsible for developing O2's media strategy, including forging deals and partnerships and creating advertising opportunities.