Guru Gowrappan

Guru Gowrappan serves as executive vice president & group CEO of Verizon Media, a division of Verizon creating what’s next in content, advertising and technology. Verizon Media brands like Yahoo, TechCrunch and HuffPost help people stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and partners to connect.

Guru has an impressive track record of scaling mobile product and business operations during his more than 15 years in the internet industry. He brings a borderless, global mindset to his mission of accelerating growth for Verizon Media.

Prior to joining Verizon Media, Guru was the Global Managing Director at the Alibaba Group, where he focused on international expansion for key consumer and enterprise products across commerce, entertainment & media, local services, payments and the company’s entire commerce-enabling stack.

Before his time as one of Alibaba’s foremost senior executives, Guru was COO at Quixey, where he led the Product, Business, and Marketing organizations. He was also previously COO for Growth and Emerging Initiatives at Zynga and shepherded the company through its IPO process with the management team while serving as Head of Zynga Japan.

Earlier in his career, Guru worked at Overture, where he helped define the multi-billion-dollar search marketing industry. As part of Yahoo, he held several leadership roles, including Global Head of Product, Program Management, and Operations.

Guru co-founded two Indian startups and remains an active startup advisor. He is also active in conservation, leading and supporting causes to preserve the environment.

He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and completed the Business Bridge Program with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.