Updated below
(Original Story: 2007-08-06, 02:12 AM PST) We’d contacted Yahoo India regarding this, and just received a press release confirming that George Zacharias, Managing Director, Yahoo India has stepped down to pursue “entrepreneurial interests”. Keith Nilsson, VP-International Emerging markets for Yahoo will head Yahoo India. Zacharias will continue to work with Yahoo India over the next 4-6 months weeks.
Zacharias had joined Yahoo India as MD in Jan 2006, from Sify, where he was COO. Zacharias was with Sify for five years, before which he was with Bangalore based Madura Coats for 16 years, and was appointed President of Madura Garmets in 1997. Zacharias graduated from Nagpur University with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1980 and from XLRI, Jamshedpur with a PGDBM in 1982.
Update: Agencyfaqs reports that Yahoo’s formed a leadership council – Pranesh Anthapur, COO of Yahoo! India R&D, Sandeep Srivastava, Head (Strategy), and Pearl Uppal, Director (Sales) – which will report to Nilsson. Zacharias says that he’s starting a tech (not consumer Internet) firm, which will be unveiled in a few weeks.
Update 2:
The rumor that Sequoia Capital is funding George Zacharias’ IT venture was there even before we got a confirmation that he has resigned as Yahoo India MD. Mint reports, quoting a source, that the infrastructure management startup is receiving $20 million from Sequoia Capital. The funds will be invested over a year, and the first investment will be used to finance an acquisition in the US. The founding team has six to seven people, mostly from Yahoo India and Sify. More at Mint.
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