Yahoo! Announces New CEO and Other Senior Leaders for Altaba
Thomas McInerney
As Yahoo! prepares to join Verizon, it has revealed that its remaining business under the Altaba entity will be run by its board member Thomas McInerney, 52, the former EVP & CFO of IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Altaba was created in January to be an investment company, when Yahoo! announced that, following the close of its merger with Verizon, what's left of the company will be changing its name to Altaba. Altaba will be managing assets in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan, along with some non-core patents not included in the Verizon sale. It’s a successor to Aabaco, which was created by Yahoo’s board in 2015 but ultimately stalled after the company decided to do a “reverse spin-off” instead.
McInerney has served as a member of Yahoo’s Board since April 2012. He is former EVP and CFO of IAC/InterActiveCorp. He also served as CEO of the retailing division of IAC (which included HSN and Cornerstone Brands). Prior, McInerney served as EVP and CFO of Ticketmaster and worked as a Principal at Morgan Stanley. McInerney serves on the boards of directors of HSN, Interval Leisure Group and Match Group.
The newly-announced CEO was named chairman of Yahoo’s strategic review committee last spring when the company fell under pressure to avoid a proxy battle with activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP.
Current Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer will be departing the company with a severance totaling to $23 million, according to a proxy statement filed by Yahoo!.
Arthur ChongJoining McInerney at Altaba are current Yahoo! executives and outside advisors Arthur Chong, 63, who will be General Counsel and Secretary, Alexi Wellman, 46, who is the new Chief Financial and Accounting Officer, and DeAnn Fairfield Work, 47, who is joining as Chief Compliance Officer.
Chong served as an outside legal advisor to Yahoo! from October 2016. Prior to that, he served as a special advisor to Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, a law firm. Previously, he served as EVP, General Counsel and Secretary at Broadcom and EVP and Chief Legal Officer at Safeco.
Wellman has served as VP, Global Controller of Yahoo! since October 2015, being promoted from VP, Finance. Before Yahoo!, Wellman served as CFO of Nebraska Book Company, which owned and operated college bookstores, and was a Partner at KPMG.
Work has served as an outside legal advisor to Yahoo! since December 2016. From December 2012 to February 2016, she served as SVP, Senior Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Broadcom. Before that, she was VP and Deputy General Counsel of Broadcom.
Date: March 20, 2017