Monetization Forum

	Sebastien de Halleux \| Playfish Sebastien, a co-founder of Playfish, is vice president business development & strategic partnerships, EA Interactive. In his role within EA Interactive, Sebastien drives distribution, monetization, business development, and relationships with key partners across the division’s three business units, Playfish, Pogo and EA Mobile. He was chief operating officer and co-founder of Playfish leading up to the company’s acquisition by Electronic Arts in November 2009. Prior to Playfish, Sebastien was part of the team that incubated Nokia Ad Service, a business unit aimed at monetizing mobile traffic across Nokia's 850 million mobile devices worldwide. Sebastien also was an early team member of Macrospace Ltd., a company which merged with Sorrent Inc. to become Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), where he was instrumental in building the sales and marketing functions of the organization. He later expanded Glu's distribution footprint in Europe, forged key partnerships with network operators Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange, and reorganized the company's financial planning and sales operations in preparation for its IPO on NASDAQ. Sebastien holds a Master's in Civil Engineering with honors from Imperial College London. He has resided in Brussels, Bangkok and London, and presently lives in San Francisco.
	Heiko Hubertz \| Bigpoint Heiko Hubertz is the CEO and founder of Bigpoint, the worldwide market leader in online games. Bigpoint is headquartered in Hamburg (Bigpoint GmbH), and has locations in Berlin, San Francisco (Bigpoint Inc.), and Malta (Bigpoint International). Founded in 2002 in Düsseldorf, Bigpoint has become the world’s largest portal for browser games and ranks among the top three gaming portals worldwide. Hubertz started Bigpoint GmbH by developing the first game, Hockey Manager, himself. Since then, Bigpoint has expanded to over 500 employees from 35 nations who utilize cutting-edge technology to develop and operate a diverse range of browser-based games that are enjoyed worldwide by well over 140 million registered players and growing. Bigpoint’s rapid expansion stems from many technological innovations, a unique willingness to experiment with new business models, and the passion to lead the widely-popular browser games segment. Hubertz’s goal is for browser games to compete against the quality and depth that has previously only been attainable through console or PC-installed games. Prior to founding Bigpoint, Hubertz leveraged new technology to pioneer new services in Europe. As the Managing Director of AASP GmbH, he created the first telephone payment system. With the merger of AASP with eops AG and Coolspot AG, the native of Schleswig-Holstein was responsible for running the most successful payment solutions company in Europe from 1999 to 2003. Over the course of his career, Hubertz has won several executive leadership awards. In 2009, he received the Stevie® International Business Award as the “Executive of the Year in Europe.” In 2007, he received second place as Internet Businessman of the Year. Bigpoint has also received many industry awards, including the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and a Red Dot design award in 2009, among many others. As a business advisor and mentor, Hubertz is personally committed to promoting and supporting young start-up companies, such as Young Internet GmbH (panfu.de), tamola GmbH (tamola.de), and Easybill GmbH (easybill.de).
	Eric Bethke \| Zynga Erik Bethke joined Zynga in August 2009 as senior director, Mafia Wars, overseeing the design and development of the top-played Mafia Wars franchise. His focus is metrics accelerated game design applied on the massive scale of the millions of daily Mafia Wars players. Erik works closely with the product managers, software engineers, game designers, customer service and across company to achieve the mission of Connecting the World through Games. Prior to Zynga, Erik was the CEO of GoPets, a Korean-based online PC games company. He also ran Taldren, another PC games company where he is credited with the Star Trek: Starfleet Command series, Orion Pirates and Neutral Zone. Erik spent many years at Interplay in various positions including senior group producer. In addition to being a game designer, Erik is also an author. He wrote the first book in the game industry on the methodology of creating games: Game Development and Production edited by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk Co-CEOs of Bioware. Erik co-edited his second book with Erin Hoffman: Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds, the first book to explore human rights and property rights in virtual worlds and specifically challenges the current End User License Agreements commonly known as EULA. Erik now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Kai-wen Lin and their sons Kyle and Max. He worked on the UV Spectrometer experiments under Dr. D.E. Shemanksy at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Southern California where he dropped out of his PhD program of Space Sciences to pursue a career in the games industry.
	Kate Paiz \| Turbine Kate joined Turbine in 2005 from There.com, where she spent two years as the producer designing and developing member acquisition and ecommerce features, including the 5,000 product in-game e-commerce site. At Turbine, Kate worked for four years as Senior Producer on Dungeons & Dragons Online, and managed its conversion to a Free to Play hybrid business model. Currently, Kate is the Executive Producer for The Lord of the Rings Online, which launches its hybrid business model with optional subscription and a strong in-game ecommerce store this fall.
	Piyush Mangalick \| Facebook Piyush Mangalick is Manager of the Partner Engineering group at Facebook, where he focuses on rolling out Facebook's new virtual currency, Facebook Credits. Prior to Facebook, Piyush worked at Google for almost five years, where he helped start Google Checkout and Google TV Ads. Piyush loves starting new ventures, and was a co-founder of Enduse, a B2B auction company that was sold to Sterling Software in 2003. He also started VentureLoop, a job portal designed for top venture capital firms and their portfolio companies. In the 1990s, Piyush worked in the SAP Enterprise Software market, where he started his own consulting company, whose clients included Intel, Mitsubishi Electronics, Behring Diagnostics, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Piyush received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University, emphasizing in Artificial Intelligence, and his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
	Jason Hable \| Playdom Jason Hable is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Playdom, where he is responsible for the monetization and organic growth of the portfolio. Jason joined Playdom via the acquisition of social game maker Metaplace, where he served as Vice President of Business Operations in charge of all business activities and live game product management. Prior to Metaplace, Jason was a Principal at Crescendo Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm where he focused on digital media and software investments.
	Lee Clancy \| IMVU Lee joined IMVU in September 2008 from Yahoo!, where he was Senior Director for Community Products. At Yahoo!, Lee also led product management for Yahoo! Groups, a global community of 110 million users, and Yahoo! Personals, the most visited destination in the dating market. Prior to Yahoo!, Lee co-founded a music-focused social networking startup. Lee also worked at Broadband Office in business development and at PricewaterhouseCoopers in strategy consulting advising entertainment and media clients. Lee earned a B.A. in Spanish Literature from Amherst College, an M.B.A. from Cornell University, and an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Lee enjoys running, yoga, and getting outdoors with his wife and two great kids. Fluent in Spanish and French, he is a rabidly passionate fan of Sevilla FC.
	Mario Shiliashki \| Mastercard Mario Shiliashki is SVP & Group Head, US Emerging Payments Lead, responsible for US-based development and commercialization of payment product platforms, including e-Commerce, Mobile, Chip, P2P, Transit, PayPass, inControl and Bill Payment. He was previously General Manager of PayPal in Southeast Asia and India. In this role, Mr. Shiliashki built and led the business development, sales, marketing and product development teams in Singapore and India. Under his leadership, PayPal developed key partnerships across the region and launched products in key new target markets, including Japan, Malaysia and India. Mr. Shiliashki began his career at PayPal as Head of European Financial Planning and Analysis in London. He was then promoted to Director of PayPal International and eBay North America Financial Planning and Analysis in California. Prior to PayPal, Mr. Shiliashki was a Consultant at Bain & Company in London and a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York. Mr. Shiliashki holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Economics, summa cum laude, from Bryant University.
	Kyle Laughlin \| Yahoo! In his role as head of Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Games, Laughlin oversees programming, content, business and product strategies for both industry leading sites. Under Laughlin’s leadership Yahoo! Sports continues to be the #1 sports destination on the Internet with more than 30 million users visiting the site each month. Yahoo! Games reaches more than 15 million engaged users each month, providing fans with solo and multiplayer web games, digitally distributed games, and information and coverage of the social, mobile, and video games industry. Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2007, Laughlin was Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Games! and charged with developing a unified casual and videogame product organization, growing audience acquisition through SEO, and improving monetization of its existing interactive products. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Laughlin led the Web Services team at Helio, an advanced mobile joint venture between South Korea Telecom and Earthlink. He spearheaded the successful launch of Helio.com and was responsible for the strategy and development of the over the air (OTA) web-to-phone digital content distribution system. He also worked for Sapient, a business & technology consultancy in its User Experience practice, working with Fortune 500 clients to develop user interfaces for AT&T, Sprint, and Motorola. A Chicago native, Laughlin graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems. Laughlin currently resides in Manhattan Beach and is an avid surfer.
	Chris Early \| Ubisoft Ubisoft is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Early to Ubisoft’s San Francisco office. Early will spearhead Ubisoft’s digital publishing initiatives. In his new role, he will oversee online game operations in the Americas, E-Commerce, CRM and third party online development for Ubisoft. Early brings an impressive breadth of experience in the industry to Ubisoft. Early was most recently the general manager for Windows Gaming Technology at Microsoft. A gaming industry veteran, Early led development efforts designed to extend game experiences across multiple platforms and grow Microsoft's casual and core gaming audiences. Microsoft's Windows Gaming efforts span Games for Windows - LIVE, MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger Games. Prior to his role as general manager, Early was Studio Manager for Microsoft Casual Games, overseeing the development of Xbox Live Arcade, the operation of MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger Games, and the internal casual game production studio, Carbonated Games. Before joining Microsoft, Early served as president and chief operating officer of GameSpy and executive vice president and general manager of Mplayer. Early’s entrepreneurial exploits include founding Corporate Computer Rental and being a ComputerLand franchisee. Early holds a BA in Economics and International Management from Claremont Men's College.
	Danielle Deibler \| Adobe Systems Danielle Deibler works for Adobe Systems, investigating early-stage technology and business opportunities. Her current focus is the casual gaming space as it pertains to the Flash Platform. Deibler has over 17 years in the Internet infrastructure, software development, and networking arenas. Her primary area of focus in the last 7 years has been on building scalable real time collaboration platforms and applications. Previously, she's held senior leadership positions in software development, engineering, business development and product management for several early stage companies. She is also an avid gamer.
	Atul Bagga \| ThinkEquity Atul is currently the Senior Equity Research Analyst covering Online Media and Games industry at ThinkEquity. He has regularly presented at a number of gaming industry conferences such as Games Developers Conference, Social Games Summit, Virtual Goods Summit, China Games Business Conference, LA Games Conference, Flash Gaming Summit and is widely quoted and interviewed on TV and print media such as Economist, New York Times, Time, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNN, and USA Today. Previously, Atul worked as Equity Research Analyst with Smith New Court (now Merrill Lynch.) Atul received his MBA from Haas School of Business at University of Berkeley, Masters in Management from University of Bombay and Bachelors in Engineering from National Institute of Technology in India.
	Charles Hudson Charles Hudson was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business, a leading social games developer, until the company was acquired by Zynga in February 2010. He was formerly the Sr. Director for Business Development at Gaia Interactive, the fastest growing online hangout for teens. Prior to Gaia, Charles worked in New Business Development at Google and focused on new partnership opportunities for early-stage products in the advertising, mobile, and e-commerce markets. Prior to joining Google, he was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, a leading provider of anti-spam hardware appliances that was acquired by Cisco Systems for $830 million in 2007. Charles is also the founder of the Virtual Goods Summit and Social Gaming Summit, two of the leading conferences in the games space. Charles spent several years working at In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture capital group for the Central Intelligence Agency. While at In-Q-Tel, he focused on identifying investment opportunities that could deliver significant value to the CIA and the commercial market in both the short and long term.Charles Hudson holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University.