IZEA, Inc. (OTCQB: IZEA), operator of the premier online marketplace that connects brands with influential content creators, announced the appointment of former SPLYT executive Chris Staymates as Vice President of Engineering. Staymates joins a diverse leadership roster at IZEA, as well as skilled software engineers, product designers and data scientists.
In his new role, Staymates is responsible for driving customer success by leading all aspects of software ideation and delivery. His role reports to IZEA Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ted Murphy. Leveraging an extensive background in both consumer and enterprise software design, Staymates will help accelerate IZEA’s global growth and further the creator centric mission of the company.
“The IZEAx platform is central to the success of our company and we continue to invest in the technology,” said Murphy. “We have been searching for someone with the technical leadership and passion for user experience to help lead the team through the next evolution. We have found that person in Chris. His extensive background in data, analytics and visualization will be instrumental as we continue to enrich the features and functionality of IZEAx and provide our customers with greater insights.”
Prior to joining IZEA, Staymates was the Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering at SPLYT, which was acquired by Knetik earlier this year. Under the leadership of Staymates, SPLYT developed a cloud-based platform for data collection, data visualization, multi-variant testing, and application optimization. Staymates was recently granted a patent as a co-inventor of the technology.
Prior to switching his professional focus to data and analytics, Staymates was entrenched in online game development. He was a Co-Founder of Row Sham Bow, and online game developer and creator of Gamasutra’s Social Game of the Year, Woodland Heroes. In addition to developing, planning and operating the game systems, Staymates served as data scientist for all released games, delivering insights to production and operations.
“IZEA is a pioneer in the world of content marketing and the company is clearly committed to pursuing growth through innovative technology,” said Staymates. “The decision to join was easy and I’m very excited with what we have in store for our creators, advertisers and partners.”
Earlier in his career, Staymates served as Software Architect and Lead Engineer for Electronics Arts, where he lead a team of thirty engineers and owned the software architecture road map for key console franchises, including “Madden NFL,” “NCAA Football,” and “NFL Blitz.” In addition, he designed and led the implementation of ‘SuperSim’ at EA, a cross-platform, cross product football simulation engine.
Staymates is a Cum Laude graduate of The University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science & Engineering. He serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the University of Central Florida Computer Science Department and the Industry Advisory Board for the Game and Simulation Programming Department at DeVry University. He is also a Co-Founder of Canvs, a co-working space and nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Central Florida’s startup community.
