LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - May 12, 2011) - ZEN Entertainment, Inc. (ZEN) has named senior gaming executive Craig S. Billings as its new President and CEO, effective immediately. Billings replaces ZEN Founder P. Vincent Zaldivar, who will be leaving the company at the end of June to pursue other opportunities. As CEO, Billings will be responsible for charting ZEN's broad corporate strategy and driving its innovative execution. Craig has a long history of success and innovation in the casino gaming industry, including as Chief of Staff and Head of Corporate Development at International Game Technology.
Prior to joining IGT, Craig was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where he provided financial and strategic advice to companies across the globe and in every aspect of the gaming industry from Goldman's New York headquarters and, subsequently, from London. Billings is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School. He received his undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
"ZEN has a powerful and unique opportunity to provide our branded partners access to the viral momentum of social gaming and free-to-play casino-style games without requiring them to cede control of the play environment to a social network," said Billings. "As the pioneer in legal, free-to-play online poker, ZEN is extraordinarily well-positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth in the social and casual games markets and, ultimately, on legislative changes that may occur in the wager-based online gaming industry. ZEN's proprietary tournament-based gaming platform and Las Vegas, Nevada headquarters uniquely position our company in this fast-moving environment."
About ZEN Entertainment Network
Founded in Las Vegas in 2008, ZEN is a leading global developer of casino-style and tournament-style game platforms and games, uniting brands and communities in 100 percent legal, online poker games for fun and prizes. Zen's flagship product, the ZEN Tournament Network®, is the leading free-to-play games network. The ZEN Tournament Network is deployed alongside third party brands such as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE®), casinos and others.
ZEN's platform is based on a completely U.S. legal free-to-play social and casual games environment featuring tournament-style poker and video poker. The Company's platform consistently demonstrates high performance metrics including 67 minute average user sessions and 10+ hours of session-play per month per user. ZEN provides each player with a diverse selection of tournaments to enjoy, many of which are sponsored by celebrities, national brands and manufacturers, movie studios, and other marketers seeking to present their products to ZEN's highly engaged casual game audience.
To find out more about ZEN Entertainment Network, please visit www.zenentertainment.com.