Identified.com Kicks off Hiring of Top Gaming Talent

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Identified.com, the fastest growing career site for young professionals, today announced that it hired Brian Chu as vice-president of product as it builds out its team of top game designers.  Chu will lead the development of the Identified consumer product, which is incorporating gaming elements to create an engaging, career-focused experience for users.

Chu joins Identified from Zynga where he was lead product manager and developed the product strategy for Zynga's CityVille, one of the largest games on Facebook. With a deep knowledge of game design, Chu was instrumental in helping build Cityville into Zynga's largest and most profitable game franchise. Chu attended the University of California at Berkeley where he earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science and an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business. Prior to Zynga, Chu worked at Deloitte Consulting, LLP.

"Brian is well known in the industry as the very best in game design. He led an incredible team at Zynga and we are thrilled to have him join Identified," said Adeyemi Ajao, co-founder and co-CEO of Identified. "Our goal is to build the best product team in the world and Brian was my top choice to lead that team."

Chu will be joining Leon Kitain, who was recently hired by Identified as a director of product. Kitain, the former product lead for China's giant Internet portal Tencent, also developed the online strategy for the gaming franchise "Pokemon."

Identified, which recently announced it has raised $21 million in a Series B round of financing, aims to help young people achieve their professional goals.  By assembling some of the world's leading game design experts and data scientists, Identified is building a fun, addictive, game-like experience where people can track and quantify their career development online.  The company's advisors include social gaming pioneer and founder of Zynga's Mafia Wars, Roger Dickey, and Miguel Sanchez-Grice, director of product at Zynga.

Identified is popular with young Facebook users who are eager to separate their social and professional presence online. Users import their basic work information from Facebook to Identified.com to create a distinct professional profile. The company plans to integrate other platforms outside of Facebook in the future.

Since its public launch in September 2011, Identified has grown to more than 10 million registered users, 90 percent of whom are under the age of 29. In the past five months, Identified experienced a 525 percent growth rate among users between the ages of 18-29 years old, making it the fastest growing career site for young professionals. 

Identified pioneered the Identified Score which helps users track their career progress in real time and will eventually provide feedback on how different education and work decisions impact their professional future.

About Identified

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Identified is the fastest growing career site for young professionals aged 18-29 with a community of 10 million registered users. Using Facebook connections, Identified lets users create professional profiles on a separate platform. Identified analyzes the work history, education and demographic data of over 400 million Facebook users, and tracks the hiring behaviors of thousands of companies to produce an Identified Score for people, companies and schools. Identified has raised a total of $22.5 million from VantagePoint Capital Partners, Capricorn Investment Group, Bill Draper, Tim Draper, Innovation Endeavors and others.

Identified was conceived as a research initiative at Stanford University by Brendan Wallace and Adeyemi Ajao. For more information and to find out your Identified Score, visit www.identified.com.

SOURCE Identified