Zillow's First Woman Board Member Has Tech Chops

Zillow Group, Inc., appointed April Underwood, Vice President of Product at collaborative messaging platform Slack, to its board in February. She is the first woman to join the real estate marketplace company's board.

 

Underwood joined Slack as Head of Platform in June 2015 and has also held key product and engineering roles at Twitter, Google, Travelocity and Intel. She is also a founding member of #Angels, a woman-owned and operated angel investing group focused on helping grow technology start-ups.

 

- Advertisement -

“I have long been inspired by Zillow Group's mission to build the largest, most trusted and vibrant home-related marketplace in the world. I am honored to join the Board of Directors,” Underwood said in a statement. “Zillow Group's people, culture, brands and partnerships are impressive and I look forward to working closely with (Zillow Group Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Rich Barton), (CEO Spencer Raskoff) and the other board members to help support the company's continued success.”

 

At Slack, Underwood spearheaded an investment of $80 million in third-party apps, including one that “summarizes chat threads so people don't miss updates,” according to a Fortune story on why she joined the company.

 

In the Fortune article she said, “I fell in love with Slack for personal reasons. They were working on a problem I was passionate about—information overload in the workplace.”

 

On her Twitter bio, @aunder, she writes about herself: “Big believer in breakfast. 5th generation Texan who kept going west.”

Underwood, 36, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Management Information Systems and Business Honors, and from the University of California, Berkeley (Haas) with an MBA. She has received numerous recognitions for her contributions to the technology industry, including Fortune's 40 Under 40 list in 2016, Elle's Women in Tech list in 2016 and Fast Company's Most Creative People list in 2015.

About the Author(s)

April Hall

April Hall is the former managing editor of Directors & Boards


This is your 1st of 5 free articles this month.

Introductory offer: Unlimited digital access for $20/month
4
Articles Remaining
Already a subscriber? Please sign in here.

Related Articles

Navigate the Boardroom

Sign up for the Directors & Boards weekly newsletter for the latest news, trends and analysis impacting public company boardrooms.