A Little Bit About Our CTO John Zuur Platten

Interview by Natalie Andersen

John Zuur Platten not only has an impressive IMDb page (read bio) and has a best-selling book on Amazon (purchase here), but also is the pro bono Chief Technology Officer of Change Lab. John became involved with Change Lab after giving a stellar recommendation for Nathan Hale, one of his students being considered for our p/t lead game developer position, funded by our 2018 Kickstarter! (Oh and we hired Nathan who helped to really launch our team work.) John has been a part of the project ever since then.

When he is not helping out with Change Lab or teaching at the New York Film Academy, John is a professional “binge writer” and masterful storyteller. Unlike those who sit down and write two/ three pages a day, John works everything out in his head and then transcribes the whole thing onto paper at the end. Not sure what the more impressive part is- never missing a deadline, or never having writer’s block.

John got his start in the entertainment industry as a tour guide at Universal. He thought he was interviewing for a burger-flipping job, and ended up giving tours, including one where he stalled a tram for over 20 minutes. During his time there, he handed out his resume and went from popping popcorn to eventually developing and producing Tomcat Alley and working on Pokémon Go, and countless other projects in between.