On her first day back from maternity leave, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer hired a top sales executive from Google to serve as the company’s new chief operating officer. Henrique De Castro was persuaded to join his former colleague at Yahoo as part of a package that could cost the company upwards of $60 million.
De Castro will start at Yahoo with a base salary of $600,000 and will be given up to $36 million in stock depending on how long he stays with the company and how well Yahoo does during his time on board.
Furthermore, he is also being granted $1 million to make up for salary he would have earned if he stayed at Google and another $20 million in stock to replace Google stock he owns that has not yet vested.
47-year-old De Castro led publisher relations at Google. He formerly served as the search giant’s president of media, mobile and platforms. Before his time at Google, the executive served as a consultant for McKinsey & Co and managed Dell’s European sales and business development team.
Mayer said the new COO is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader and that she was personally excited to have him join Yahoo’s leadership team. De Castro highlighted Yahoo’s high-quality content, its renewed focus on creating an outstanding user experience and its massive reach.
A spokesperson for Google said they were grateful to Henrique for all of his contributions and wish him the best in his new role at Yahoo.
