CrowdStar Hires Glu's Ex-CTO To Head Studios

Social game developer CrowdStar (It Girl) announced that it has hired Alex Galvagni, formerly the CTO and Global Product Development SVP at Glu Mobile, as its new head of studios. This appointment comes as CrowdStar looks to rapidly expand its staff -- since the beginning of the year, it has grown from 75 full-time employees to 100, and expects to reach as many as 150 later this year. Galvagni, who has eight years of experience experience scaling the technology and product development at Glu Mobile, will be tasked with managing CrowdStar's continued scaling of hiring, studios, and operations. The new studio head most recently worked at mobile video advertising firm Transpera, where he was president and COO for nearly a year. The company was acquired by Tremor Media in February. CrowdStar is currently the third largest social game developer on Facebook (behind Zynga and Electronic Arts/Playfish) with more than 30 million monthly active users. Its titles include It Girl, Happy Aquarium, and Happy Island. "We are absolutely thrilled to bring Alex’s depth of experience to the CrowdStar team as we continue on our path of rapid growth," says CrowdStar CEO Peter Relan. "He has a proven track record of developing companies to private and public exits and expanding them globally."