It’s been a build-up of anticipation and at times frustration amongst the Zed community as we waited in the wings for an announcement regarding the games new CEO.
Today the news finally arrived!
Speaking of wings, let me ask you a question.
What do an F16 Fighter jet and a Zed Run horse have in common?
The answer is Nir Efrat our new CEO.
As a software developer Nir previously led a team that developed military software for F16 fighter jets!
That is an impressive item to have on your resume, but it’s his career experience in the casino gaming and video game industries that I think make him a game changing appointment as CEO of VHS and Zed Run.
From what I have been able to gather online so far, Nir has a wealth of experience in both the mobile gaming and online gambling industries.
That’s the killer combination that can launch Zed into the stratosphere.
On top of this, he seems a proven leader and has worked extensively with large teams based across multiple locations.
This sounds exactly like what Zed Run need with their multi country employee structure.
“Over 20 years experience in scaling and turning around cross-functional, cross-cultural, and multiple location teams, driving product, analytics and technology delivery” – Linkedin quote.
I think the community would all agree we needed someone special to seize the reigns here at Zed and in my opinion Chris and Co have out done themselves with this recruitment.
Hats off to them for pulling it off.
I believe Nir might just be the man that can guide our game to the promised land, but don’t just take my word for it.
Take a look at his resume for yourself and tell me it doesn’t get you excited for the future of our game!
Previous roles in the gaming and entertainment industry;
2020 – 2022.
Head of mobile gaming at Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc – An American video game holding company that owns two major publishing companies Rockstar Games and 2k.
Its portfolio includes franchises such as BioShock, Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, WWE 2K, and Red Dead.
2018 – 2022.
Company President (2018-2019) company CEO (2019-2022) at Dots. (Playdots)
The Dots franchise released several puzzle based games that have over 100 million downloads to date.
2014 – 2018.
Senior Vice President and Head of Game Franchises and Studios at King.
King are 20 year veterans in the mobile gaming space and boast over 200 million monthly active players.
Their game “Candy crush” was the top grossing franchise in the US app store for 6 consecutive years.
2011 – 2014.
Vice President of Casino and Games and Vice President of Gaming at 888.
888 is one of the oldest online Casino’s having operated since the mid 1990’s and was the first exclusively online Casino to be licensed in the United States.
Interestingly this license was granted while Nir was VP of Casino and Games.
As per the official announcement on the VHS Twitter/X account, Nir has been onboard at VHS since November last year and has been spending that time getting to know and understand the game of Zed and the team developing it.
This has included a visit to Australia to meet team members in person.
For now, we stand by and wait as Nir meshes what he has learnt about Zed with his well of industry experience.
From there I imagine he will share his vision and the new direction for the game we love.
At this point we don’t know what the future holds, but after looking over Nir’s resume I expect that future to be an exciting one.
I’m looking forward to it!
Welcome to Zed Nir, I look forwarding to hearing from you soon!