Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced that Max Levchin has been appointed to its board of directors, effective immediately.

Levchin is a computer scientist, serial entrepreneur and angel investor with extensive experience building enduring Internet companies. His latest undertaking, HVF, is focused on solving big problems and improving lives by extracting insights from the vast quantities of data around us. Prior to founding HVF, Levchin served as vice president of engineering at Google after its acquisition of Slide, an early developer of social applications which he founded and ran. Levchin incubated and was the first investor in Yelp. A graduate of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, he was one of the co-founders of PayPal as well as the company’s CTO, from founding through its acquisition by eBay.

Levchin also serves as chairman of the boards at Kaggle and Yelp and is a director at Evernote.

“Max is someone I’ve admired throughout my career for his phenomenal sense for great products and keen focus on user experiences,” said Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!. “I’m confident that his strong product and technology expertise will be a tremendous asset to Yahoo! as we work to transform the world’s daily habits.”

David Kenny and Brad Smith have decided to step down from the board in order to focus on their respective companies, effective immediately. There are now 11 directors on the Yahoo! board.

“I’d like to thank David and Brad for their stewardship of the company over the past few years. Both David and Brad played critical roles in bringing me to Yahoo!, so I’m especially grateful for the opportunity and trust they’ve placed in me. They also oversaw some of Yahoo!’s most significant transactions, including the recent Alibaba repurchase agreement. We will miss their leadership and partnership, and I know I speak for everyone at Yahoo! in wishing them the best,” said Mayer.

“The board is thrilled to welcome Max, and we look forward to working with Marissa and the entire Yahoo! team to continue to drive the company forward,” said Fred Amoroso, chairman of the board of directors of Yahoo! Inc.

“On behalf of the board, I would like to thank David and Brad for their vision and dedication to Yahoo!. Their insight has been invaluable in helping to position Yahoo! so well for the future,” Amoroso continued.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! is focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has offices located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company's blog (yodel.yahoo.com).