United Games of American Fork has named Sonny Olsen as its CEO and a member of its board of directors. He replaces Jeff Henderson, the company’s founder, who has stepped down but will continue to serve on the company’s board.
United Games developed FireFan, a live interactive, second-screen sports app, which launched on Thanksgiving Day 2016. FireFan is a non-gambling game that has had over half a million downloads with over half a million games played monthly and is available free on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
“After a thorough and thoughtful search process, we are thrilled to have Sonny join us,” said Henderson. “He brings a stellar leadership reputation, a wealth of tech industry experience and a passion for taking companies to the next level. We are absolutely confident that Sonny is the right leader for United Games as we head into an era of unprecedented growth and expand internationally in 2018. We are very excited to welcome Sonny as our CEO as we embark on our next chapter with renewed focus, and an incredible team of loyal and creative employees.”
Olsen has extensive experience leading, innovating and scaling companies, including having guided a number of tech companies through transformation periods. Olsen has served as the CEO and chief operating officer of JMM Holdings and was also an incorporator and board member of the Miner Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Justine Miner (daughter of Oracle founder Robert Miner), based in San Francisco. Olsen was a co-founder for Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen, a regional law firm in Provo, where he specialized in corporate governance, commercial litigation and partnership development. Olsen also served on the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee.
“I cannot imagine a more important and exciting time to join United Games,” said Olsen. “With a diverse and highly engaged audience, a best-in-class game in FireFan, and an extremely passionate and talented group of people, United Games is well-positioned to capture an even greater market opportunity. United Games is also debt-free, which is remarkable for a company at this stage providing increased opportunities for investment and growth. In 2018, we’re going to be announcing additional features to our FireFan platform which will be more social in nature.”
Olsen holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Iowa College of Law, pursued graduate studies at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and received a B.S. degree in hospital administration from Weber State University.