Michael Callahan Joins Auction.com

IRVINE, CA-Auction.com has hired Michel Callahan as EVP, chief legal officer and secretary to oversee the company's legal, regulatory, intellectual-property, government-relations, compliance, ethics and corporate-governance matters. Callahan has nearly 20 years of corporate legal experience.

Having served most recently as EVP, general counsel and secretary at Yahoo!, Callahan was with that company in a variety of capacities from 1999 to 2012. He is now based in Auction.com's recently established Silicon Valley office, on which GlobeSt.com has previously reported.

“I'm excited by the opportunity to join the executive-management team of Auction.com, a dynamic company that is harnessing the power of technology to bring speed, efficiency and transparency to the way real estate is bought and sold online,” said Callahan in a prepared statement.

While at Yahoo!, Callahan built a legal, public-policy, ethics and compliance and intellectual-property department that grew threefold to over 200 professionals under his leadership. He was a key advisor to the executive team and board of directors through numerous significant acquisitions, investments and divestitures, including the strategic investment and restructuring of Yahoo!'s holdings in the Alibaba Group, as well as the development of the firm's deep intellectual-property assets. He has also served as a corporate mergers-and-acquisitions associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Boston and San Francisco.

According to Jeffrey Frieden, CEO of Auction.com, “During his career Mike has built and led legal, regulatory and government-relations teams that facilitated Yahoo!'s rapid growth and commercial success. Auction.com is the online real estate marketplace of choice, and Mike's experience will be of great value as we continue to drive change in our industry by bringing together commercial and residential buyers and sellers via the Internet.”

Callahan has recently expanded the Auction.com legal team with the addition of several senior attorneys including VPs and deputy general counsels Mindy Heppberger and Eugene Lao, who formerly held the same positions at Yahoo! Lao was most recently deputy general counsel at Zynga.