PopCap Games hires VP of engineering

PopCap Games has announced the hiring of Martin Gannholm to the newly-created position of vice president of engineering.

Gannholm is a 20-year technology industry veteran who spent the past four years as a senior member of Microsoft's business software division, most recently as architect and group program manager of Microsoft Office Live.

"We're delighted to have Martin joining our management team and overseeing our engineering efforts, which are far-flung and ambitious," said PopCap CEO David Roberts.

"Martin will oversee a single organisation comprising multiple teams, responsible for a quickly expanding portfolio of technology. From providing game integration into new environments and platforms to creating solutions for new Web- and Intranet-based initiatives, Martin's group will steer PopCap's technological future in many key respects."

Gannholm began his career at Apple's localisation facility in his native Sweden. He was also a co-founder of Net-It Software and Allegis Corporation, Internet start-ups focused on online document publishing and enterprise software. He holds a number of patents related to software and the Web, including ones for rule-based database security and another for creating interactive Web page objects.

"PopCap offers the perfect blend of start-up mentality and established business success — freedom to be creative and the resources to make those creative ideas real," Gannholm said.