Short-term rental giant Vacasa announced Tuesday that it has added former executives from Zillow and Angie’s List to its board of directors.
The new additions include Chad Cohen, a former chief financial officer for Zillow, and Chris Terrill, former CEO of Angie’s List and a Realogy board member. In an email, a Vacasa spokesperson said the two executives joined the board at a time when the company’s revenue is outperforming the same period in 2019. That in turn is giving Vacasa a chance to “build out the board for the next stage of corporate growth.”
Chad Cohen
Cohen is currently a partner at investment firm Cota Capital, as well as the chief financial officer for Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp., according to his LinkedIn page. However, he may be more familiar to real estate industry members from the nine years he spent at Zillow. Cohen started at Zillow in 2006, eventually working his way up first to a vice president position and then to CFO.
He left Zillow in 2015.
Prior to Zillow, Cohen held leadership positions at Ticketmaster and Countrywide Bank.
Chris Terrill
Chris Terrill worked as the CEO of HomeAdvisor for more than seven years. When the firm merged with Angie’s List in 2017, Terrill became chief executive of the combined company. He held that position for just over a year and left in November 2018, according to his LinkedIn page.
Today, Terrill serves on the boards of several companies including home improvement portal Porch, as well as real estate giant Realogy.
The addition of Cohen and Terrill to Vacasa’s board comes about ten months after founder Eric Breon stepped down as CEO. The company hired former OpenTable CEO Matt Roberts to replace Breon.
More recently, Vacasa announced in June that it had raised $108 million in its latest funding round.
Investors have been watching the short-term rental industry closely in recent months. Part of the attention stems from the sector’s wild ride during the pandemic — travel ground to a halt earlier this year, but then rebounded significantly — and part of it stems from Airbnb’s impending stock market debut.
Vacasa manages vacation rentals for property owners and is the largest company of its kind in North America. It uses Airbnb for bookings, but also lists properties on other sites.
Cohen and Terrill also join Vacasa’s board amid an ongoing national debate about corporate leadership. In September, that debate led to the “Board Challenge,” which includes a pledge from many large companies to add more diverse members to their boards. Redfin and Zillow are among the companies leading the push for more corporate diversity.
