Zynga appoints first female director

Social games giant Zynga has appointed its first female director to the board, it has announced.

Yahoo founding executive Ellen Siminoff, who is also president and CEO of Shmoop University, will join the audit committee with immediate effect.

“Ellen has great experience and insights operating web businesses at scale and brings a passion for consumer internet products,” said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

“Ellen has also been a long-time Words With Friends player with her family and shares our mission to connect the world through games. We’re excited to welcome her to the Zynga family.”

Siminoff added: “Zynga is truly about deep connections between people and the company has built a significant, engaged player community around the benefits of play and social.

“I admire this vision and I look forward to working with Mark and my fellow directors to leverage Zynga’s tremendous success and extend its consumer facing platform for play even further.”