K. Guru Gowrappan

K. Guru Gowrappan serves as President at Viasat, Inc., where he leads the day-to-day execution of the business to drive operational excellence. In this role, he is responsible for guiding the company’s global services, product and technology roadmap, leading all operating divisions and driving the growth for strategic investments and M&A opportunities.

Guru brings over 20 years of global experience building products, leading and integrating complex M&A deals, operationalizing and scaling businesses across ecosystems including commerce & payments, media, B2B, gaming, search & ad products, subscriptions, and 5G. Guru also brings experience in working with regulators and policy makers.

Prior to joining Viasat, Guru was CEO of Verizon Media Group, the media division of Verizon Communications, Inc., which included leading brands such as Yahoo, TechCrunch and HuffPost. The media division served a global audience of 900 million monthly active users. Guru led the team during a time of significant digital and cultural transformation. He injected growth and profitability to Verizon Media by delivering new products and customer revenue across core businesses including consumer, B2B and digital advertising. He also reinvigorated the company’s subscription and transaction-based monetization while delivering double digit growth for multiple quarters.

Prior to Verizon, he served as Alibaba’s Global Managing Director, focused on international expansion for key consumer and enterprise products. In addition, he previously served as 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 / Yahoo Search Marketing, which was the foundation to a $100bn+ search advertising industry. As part of Yahoo, he held several leadership roles.

Guru earned 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. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Madras in Chennai, India.

Guru currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Bank of New York Mellon and Water.org, a global nonprofit focused on access to safe water and sanitation.