Disruptive Innovator Max Mancini Leaves eBay

[eBayNews]

eBay's Senior Director of Platform and Mobile, Max Mancini, has left the company to become Vice President of Engineering at Aha Mobile, which recently launched an application on the iPhone to help consumers get information while driving. "I left eBay a few weeks ago. I wrapped up my sabbatical and decided it was time to move back into the startup world after 5-1/2 years at eBay," he told AuctionBytes.

Mr. Mancini said he considered SM Apps, which launched this month, to be one of his key contributions at eBay, along with launching the Kijiji business and growing eBay's mobile business. SM Apps is eBay's "open platform" approach that allows third-party developers to create applications that sellers can use directly on eBay. Mancini said he was the champion behind driving SM Apps from the start.

Mancini, who also oversaw the eBay Developers Program, was featured in Fast Company magazine in May 2007 in a series on innovation. The then 40-year-old said he headed eBay's Disruption Innovation team to identify things that would take the company forward 10 or 20 years.

Max Mancini and Adam Trachtenberg, Director of Product Management for Platform & Services, talked to AuctionBytes Editor Ina Steiner about SM Apps in this June 17, 2008, podcast interview.