Chris DeWolfe (born ) is an American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Myspace in 2003 and was its

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) until 2009. DeWolfe has been the CEO of Jam City, a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

, since he co-founded it in 2010.

Early life and education

DeWolfe is a native of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and went to Lincoln High School. DeWolfe graduated BA from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1988, then completed an MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business in 1997. He was honored by the school as Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006.

Career

Myspace

DeWolfe conceived Myspace while taking a course titled "The Impact of Tech on Media and Entertainment" during the final year of his MBA program. In the final project for his class, DeWolfe created "Sitegeist", which had elements of

Citysearch Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city ...

and

Match.com Match is an online dating service with web sites serving over 50 countries in twelve languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match is ...

mixed with

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

. DeWolfe got an "A" on his project and used it as inspiration in creating Myspace. He co-founded Myspace in 2003. DeWolfe was involved with the sale of Myspace to News Corporation in 2005 for , and remained as its

(CEO) until March 2009, at which point Myspace was larger than its competitor,

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. During DeWolfe's tenure, Myspace grew to attract over 135 million worldwide visitors a month. On April 22, 2009, News Corporation announced that DeWolfe would step down as CEO to become a strategic adviser and serve on the board of Myspace China. Former Facebook executive

Owen Van Natta Owen Thomas Van Natta (born November 12, 1969) is an American businessman who has found success in a variety of tech spaces, including e-tail, social networking, music streaming, gaming, finance and investment. He currently serves as Founder of ...

replaced him.

Jam City

DeWolfe is a co-founder and the CEO of Jam City, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based

. The inspiration for Jam City came during DeWolfe’s days at Myspace. In a 2006 trip DeWolfe made to Japan, he met with SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son, where the two discussed gaming and the potential of mobile gaming. The social nature of games and the fast growth of mobile gaming in countries like Japan inspired him to start Jam City. DeWolfe founded Jam City in 2010 with former

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

executive Josh Yguado and former Myspace executives

Colin Digiaro Colin Digiaro was one of the co-founders of Myspace and currently serves as COO of Jam City (company) alongside former MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb. At MySpace, he was the Senior Vice President of International Corporate Develo ...

and

Aber Whitcomb Aber Whitcomb (born 1977) is the CTO and Co-Founder of Jam City, Inc (formerly SGN Games). As CTO of Jam City Inc, a multi-platform game developer and distributor, Aber Whitcomb oversees the cross-platform technology strategy and plays a key rol ...

when they received backing from Austin Ventures to buy the gaming startup MindJolt. Under DeWolfe's leadership, Jam City has grown to more than 825 employees and nine studios, as of May 2021. Its games, which include '' Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery'', ''Cookie Jam'', ''Panda Pop'', ''Disney Emoji Blitz'', and '' Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'', have been downloaded 1.3 billion times and Jam City reached a deal to become a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

through a merger with DPCM Capital Inc., with a $1.2 billion valuation.

Accolades

In 2006, DeWolfe was named one of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''s 100 most influential people in the world. In 2007, he was chosen by

Barbara Walters Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including ...

as one of her 10 most fascinating people and he won the Producers Guild of America's Vanguard Award in 2009.

Other roles

DeWolfe is an investor in the travel site

Gogobot Gogobot (later rebranded Trip.com) was an online travel business headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company was rebranded Trip.com in November 2016 and acquired by the Ctrip Group in 2017. Founded in 2010, by Travis Katz and Ori Zaltz ...

. He served on the board of trustees of the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

and is on the board of directors for

Woven Digital ''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...

Personal life

DeWolfe lives in Los Angeles. He has two children.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:DeWolfe, Chris American technology chief executives Businesspeople from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon Living people Marshall School of Business alumni Myspace University of Washington alumni Year of birth missing (living people)