Don Mattrick

Don Mattrick
Mattrick in 2010
Born	(1964-02-13) February 13, 1964 (age 53) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Known for	work in Distinctive Software, Inc; Electronic Arts; Microsoft; Zynga

Don A. Mattrick (born 13 February 1964) is the former CEO of social gaming company Zynga, as well as a member of its board of directors. Previously, Mattrick was the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. In this role, he was responsible for a collection of consumer businesses including Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox One, Kinect, TV Music and Video services, Microsoft Mediaroom, PC and Mobile Interactive Entertainment as well as the manufacturing and supply chain for Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2007, Mattrick served as the President of Worldwide Studios for Electronic Arts, where he worked for 15 years. At the age of 17, Mattrick founded Distinctive Software which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991 and subsequently became EA Canada.

In 1982 Mattrick, at age 17, co-founded Distinctive Software (DSI) with Jeff Sember by creating a multi-level game called Evolution on the Apple II. Sember sold his equity stake in DSI to Mattrick in 1986 and Paul Lee joined the board in the same year. In 1989 Paul Lee invested in DSI becoming the only other shareholder and he also took on a full-time operating role as CFO/COO driving finance and operations. In 1991, Mattrick was Chairman and the majority owner of DSI while Tarrnie Williams served as CEO. In the prior year, DSI had received two unsolicited acquisition offers but Mattrick declined both and instead chose to reach out to Trip Hawkins (founder of Electronic Arts) to discuss synergies between the two companies. Three months later this led to the acquisition of DSI by Electronic Arts (ERTS) which was accomplished through a pooling of interest transaction in July, 1991. Electronic Arts was a NASDAQ listed company with a valuation of approximately $200M USD at the time of the deal - Mattrick and Lee converted their DSI shares into ERTS shares as a result of the transaction. Prior to the acquisition, DSI was the largest independent game developer in North America and had 75 full-time employees working on various projects with companies like Konami, Broderbund, IBM, Disney, Mindscape and Accolade.