Yahoo Poaches Key Googler Henrique de Castro As New Chief Operating Officer

Yahoo announced today it has hired Henrique de Castro, currently vice president of Google’s worldwide Partner Business Solutions group, as chief operating officer (COO). It’s a major role: he’ll be overseeing Yahoo’s sales, operations, media and business development worldwide. According to Yahoo’s press release, De Castro will join the company on or before January 22, 2013, or as soon as he has satisfied his obligations to his current employer.

Newly named Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, just three months into her job and giving birth to her first child two weeks ago, is obviously moving aggressively to reshape Yahoo’s management team.

De Castro brings serious experience to Yahoo. From the press release:

“De Castro brings more than 20 years experience leading operations, strategy, partner management and revenue generation for some of the world’s leading brands. He led Google’s media, mobile and platforms organization. Prior to Google, de Castro spent two years at Dell Corporation, where he managed sales and business development operations across Western Europe. He has consulted for McKinsey & Company, where he advised numerous clients across many different industries.”

More on de Castro’s background and why Mayer moved aggressively to hire him at AllThingsD.