According to a Friday confirmation by a Zynga spokeswoman, the FarmVille-maker has hired former Facebook executive and ex-MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta as its new Executive VP of Business Operations. Van Natta will also reportedly be joining the board of directors of the San Francisco-based game developer.

Going by the details forwarded by the spokeswoman, the responsibilities that Van Natta - who has, of late, been serving as Zynga's advisor - will shoulder include the overseeing of Zygna's brand, revenue strategy, corporate development, and overseas expansion.

Zynga's appointment of Van Natta, who is a renowned figure in the social networking arena, comes close on the heels of the appointment of Dave Wehner - an ex- managing director at new media investment bank Allen & Co. - as the company's Chief Financial Officer, a few weeks back. The strategic move of Wehner's appointment is being speculated to be a sign of a forthcoming IPO for Zynga.

Van Natta had earlier worked as an executive at Facebook till 2008 - he served as the chief operating officer; and, eventually, the chief revenue officer at Facebook during his three-year tenure at the company.

Van Natta took up his recent job as the MySpace CEO since April last year. However, after his February conflict with Jonathan Miller - the chief digital officer MySpace's parent company, News Corp. -, he was replaced by Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn.