Maveron Promotes Former Zynga Exec

Andrew Trader, an early executive at social-game juggernaut Zynga, has been promoted to venture partner at Maveron, the consumer-focused venture capital firm of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Trader started working with Maveron as an entrepreneur in residence since last fall.

Trader was part of what’s been called the founding team at Zynga, where he focused on the business side. He left the fast-growing company, which produces Facebook games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, in spring 2010, as reported at TechCrunch. In a news release announcing the promotion, Maveron also pointed to Trader’s previous stints as CEO of Utah Street Networks (which sold some assets to Cisco) and co-founder of Coremetrics (acquired by IBM).

Maveron has offices in Seattle and San Francisco, which is where Trader is based. The firm, co-founded by Dan Levitan, focuses on consumer web, retail, education and health-related companies. Some notable portfolio companies include big names like eBay and Groupon, and up-and-comers like Seattle startups Zulily and Decide, along with more  Starbucks-like consumer product firms like Potbelly Sandwich Works and Pinkberry.

In the release, Maveron partner Amy Errett said Trader (known as A.T.) has helped the VC firm “by identifying investment opportunities and working with our portfolio companies.” I’ve reached out to Maveron to see if there’s any more detail on the companies or investment areas where Trader has made an impact, and I’ll update if I hear more. Trader has stayed involved in gaming companies, joining the board of Kixeye earlier this month.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.