Mumbai: Yahoo! India, a leading Internet brand, has appointed Gopal Krishna as head of Audience, responsible for all consumer-facing products in the region. Prior to joining Yahoo! India, Gopal was setting up a seed-stage venture capital fund focused on Internet and Mobile startups in India. Gopal will be based in Bangalore and will report to Keith Nilsson, Managing Director - International Emerging Markets, Yahoo!.

"With Gopal, Yahoo! India is adding one of the industry's top talents to our leadership team. With a proven track record for successfully managing companies and start-ups in the Internet space as well as driving rapid cycles of technology innovation, Gopal's leadership skills are well suited to leading Yahoo! India's efforts to deliver the best, most indispensable experiences on the Internet," said Keith Nilsson, Managing Director - International Emerging Markets, Yahoo!.

As the Audience Head, Gopal will be responsible for all flagship Yahoo! India products including Communities and Communications, Media and Entertainment, Front Doors and Yahoo! India Search. His responsibilities will also include marketing and business development for the company.

"Yahoo! has been a technology powerhouse since the early days of the Internet. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Internet as it transforms our daily lives," said Gopal.

Gopal was also the Founder, Chairman & CEO of ThinkIndia, a venture backed Silicon Valley new media start-up that merged with Rediff.com. Post merger, Gopal led Rediff's U.S. operations as its President. Previously, Gopal co-founded FlatIron Information Services with a VC firm and scaled India operations as the Head of Indian Operations for the investee company, Pipal Research. As a consultant with McKinsey & Company, he served clients in telecom and high-tech spaces.

Gopal has earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MS (Electrical Engineering) from University of Hawaii at Manoa and B.Tech (Electronics Engineering) from Institute of Technology, India.