Mihir Shah has resigned from his role as CEO and president of Tapjoy, effective immediately.

The mobile advertising network's board of directors has announced that former Disney Interactive Media Group president Steve Wadsworth will step up as Shah's replacement.

Shah served as Tapjoy's CEO for just over two years, but his departure seems to have been unexpected. He will not remain on the Tapjoy board.

New blood

In an statement to VentureBeat, a Tapjoy spokesperson explained that Wadsworth was appointed because the board "believes the company's growth and scale has progressed to a point where a change in leadership and management experience is best suited for Tapjoy going forward.

"This change is being made to realise and capture the massive opportunity available to the company."

Wadsworth was president of Disney's Interactive Media Group – overseeing various websites and gaming projects at the company – for 11 years, during which time he managed the $763 million acquisition of Playdom.

He left Disney in 2010, and joined Tapjoy as a director in late 2011.

On a fault line

"Tapjoy sits in the epicentre of an incredibly exciting growth industry and is very well positioned to take advantage of future growth," said Mark Leschly, the chairman of Tapjoy's board of directors.

"Tapjoy has scaled dramatically over the past two years, and we are very excited and fortunate to have someone with Steve's management credentials and deep technology and entertainment industry expertise to lead Tapjoy through our next phase of growth."

"The board would also like to acknowledge Mihir's contributions to the firm during his tenure as CEO and thank him for helping the company transition from its start-up phase to a market leading growth company," Leschly concluded.

[source: Tapjoy]