Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron exits the company

Waldron was the lead engineer on Zynga's very first game, Zynga Poker

Somehow, the massive shake up over at Zynga is still not over.

Following the depature of its long-time CEO Mark Pincus, and the restructuring of the entire company, now Zynga is losing one of its oldest members, and the creator of its very first game.

Company co-founder Justin Waldron is leaving, he announced in a Facebook post on Thursday. 

"I've decided it's time to leave zynga and venture off on my own again. It's been 6 and a half years since we pushed the button to launch our first game, and each moment since has been magic," Waldrom wrote.

"It's incredibly humbling to have worked with such a talented team. I am grateful to have had the chance to help build a company that touched so many people. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of it- both in the trenches and for playing the games."

Obviously Waldron has something else planned, but I guess we are all going to have to wait to find out what that is.

Waldron dropped out of college at the University of Connecticut at just 19 years old to co-found the company. He started out as the lead engineer/pm for Zynga’s first game, Texas Hold’em Poker, and has since worked on a number of Zynga’s other game franchises.

This is just the latest news for a company that has had a really, really rough couple of years.

Other departures and shake up

Waldron is just the latest Zynga executive to jump ship.

First was Zynga’s Chief Operating Officer John Schappert who resigned in August of 2012. No explanation was given, with the company saying in an SEC filing that the resignation was “not tendered in connection with any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”

Then it was Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu, who left in late August to start his own company and Alan Patmore, general manager of CityVille, who left to work at Kixeye.

Erik Bethke, general manager of Mafia Wars 2; Ya-Bing Chu, a VP in Zynga’s mobile division; and Jeremy Strauser, a general manager have all left as well.

Last month, two more executives resigned in two days: chief security officer Nils Puhlmann and Wilson Kriegel, the chief revenue officer of Omgpop.

The most important depature of all, though, was Pincus, who was the company's only CEO before stepping down in July.

His replacement, Don Mattrick, the former president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, has massively reorganized the company, splitting Zynga's operations into 3 divisions, with 13 managers, all of whem report directly the Mattrick.

As part of that restructuring, three high level executives, COO David Ko, CTO Cadir Lee, and HR chief Colleen McCreary, were all dismissed. 

With all of this going on, and given the fact that Waldron is still only 25 years old, its easy to see why he'd take the opportunity to get out.

(Image source: https://www.moofmonster.com)