Big Fish Hires Senior Execs

Seattle-based Big Fish Games announced today it has hired Michael Vernon as chief financial officer and Ian Hurlock-Jones as chief technology officer. Vernon is a veteran of Seattle-area firms aQuantive and Zumobi, while Hurlock-Jones comes from Fox Interactive Media and Buy.com. Big Fish, a leading developer and distributor of casual games, announced it was opening its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, in April. The company also has a small office in Vancouver, BC, which former CFO Glenn Walcott told me about last year. Big Fish raised $83.3 million back in September 2008.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.