Inman

Zillow names general counsel as first COO

Zillow has named Kathleen Philips, who has served as the firm’s general counsel since 2010, as its first chief operating officer.

Philips, who will continue to serve as general counsel and run Zillow’s legal team, played a key role in the company’s successful 2011 initial public offering, and oversees the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, including six acquisitions in the last two years. Her duties also include human resources and customer service, and she heads Zillow’s new 65-employee San Francisco office.

Kathleen Philips

“Kathleen is an incredibly valuable member of our executive team, and this title much better describes the breadth of responsibilities she has successfully taken on over the last couple of years,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff in a statement.

Prior to joining Zillow, Philips was general counsel and had customer support, online marketing and finance operations duties at FanSnap Inc., a venture capital-backed ticket search engine. Before that post, the University of Chicago Law School graduate held general counsel positions at Flip Video camera-maker Pure Digital Technologies, online ticket marketplace StubHub, and Hotwire.com.

This week Zillow also saw the departures of Bob Bemis, vice president of partner relations, and Duane Fouts, director of partner relations, who both left the company on good terms.