—Zynga: The FarmVille creator has hired Steven Chiang as president of the development studios, CEO Marc Pincus announced on his blog this week. Chiang co-founded EA-owned Tiburon Entertainment, the studio best known for the Madden NFL franchise. A longtime EA executive, he was most recently SVP and group GM for EA Sports.

—Fairchild Fashion Group: Patrick McCarthy, chairman and editorial director of Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group and de facto editor of the fashion magazine W is leaving the company at year’s end. He joined Fairchild as a reporter in 1977, rising to chairman and editorial director in 1997.

—Emmis Communications: One we missed earlier this month: Greg Loewen added president of Emmis Publishing to his role as chief strategy officer. The units regional and city mags include Texas Monthly and Los Angeles. Loewen replaced Gary Thoe, who left to focus on his family business, MidCountry Media, Inc. Loewen joined Emmis in 2007 from the Toronto Star, where he was VP-digital media and strategy.

—E!: Former Fox Business Network executive Bruce Perlmutter joins the newly created role of SVP of news and online. He’ll oversee the news division across all platforms, including E! News, Daily 10, E! Online and E! News Now. Perlmutter has also worked as a senior executive producer for MSNBC and CNN.

—Microsoft: Xiao Chen, MSN China’s VP of sales is leaving at the end of March to start up his own company, Reuters reports. He had been with the Chinese MSN venture since it it launched in 2005.

—FishBowl Worldwide Media: Susan Levison has joined as EVP of creative affairs, reporting to President and CEO Bruce Gersh. Levison comes from Fox Broadcasting, where she most recently was SVP of comedy development.

—Mesa: Mesa has opened a London office and chosen Co-Managing Partner Jerome Levy to head it. Newly appointed Managing Director Mark Labovitch will join him in launching the company’s European operations. Labovitch comes from Independent News & Media, where he was group director and CEO of Independent Digital Media.

—Publicis Seattle: Roger Baxter joins the agency as EVP and chief strategy officer. Previously, he was managing partner of Hall & Partners.