Former Google Executive Michael Morrissey Joins Yik Yak as VP of Engineering

ATLANTA, GA — (Marketwired) — 03/04/15 — Yik Yak, the social messaging app for hyper-local engagement, today announced it has hired Michael Morrissey as Vice President of Engineering. The former Senior Director of Engineering at Google joins the company after spending nearly eight years developing, scaling and improving the Android platform. In addition to building out the app–s technology, Morrissey will take the lead on growing the company–s technical team to make Yik Yak one of the most notable tech organizations in Atlanta.

“Yik Yak is growing at an exponential rate and we are excited to welcome a veteran in the industry to help us build out the technology even further,” said Tyler Droll, cofounder and CEO. “Michael brings the necessary experience that will enhance our security and scalability all in an effort to bring new features and the app itself to more users around the globe. He has the track record that any emerging tech company would want and we are thrilled to have him as part of our team.”

Morrissey spent nearly eight years with Google as a Senior Director of Engineering. Some of his successes included leading international teams focused on building highly accurate speech recognition systems and music recognition features, as well as incorporating computer vision features like Face Unlock into Android 4.0. Earlier in his career, Michael spent time as an engineer and technical lead building a content categorization system for i-drive.com, working on BeOS printing systems at Be, Inc. and developing a large networking and provisioning system at AT&T.

“Yik Yak is one of the hottest companies in the U.S. right now and I–m excited to be on board to help enhance the app and grow its users base,” said Morrissey. “It–s not every day you get to be at the epicenter of the social evolution, and I–m looking forward to working alongside Tyler and Brooks to cement Yik Yak–s position as the future of social networking.”

Yik Yak, Inc. is the first app that enables hyper-local communication on iOS and Android devices while retaining users– privacy. Meet friends, start a cause, share jokes, or deliver news to anyone within a common area. The fast-growing app is popular among college campuses and in areas where events worth sharing are occurring. The app enables any mobile user to deliver relevant, timely content to hyper-local areas of people, whether it is a funny sighting or emergency news.

Zachary Nola
LEWIS PR
619-677-2700

  google, hyperlocal-engagement, michael-morrissey, social-messaging-app, yik-yak