Leadership Team

George Chamoun became CEO of ACV Auctions on September 16, 2016. As an early angel investor in ACV, George was drawn by the company’s long term potential. George brings a successful track record of accomplishment as an entrepreneur and senior executive. He co-founded Synacor (Nasdaq: SYNC) right out of college in 1998, and spent the next two decades building it into a trusted technology and revenue partner for some of the largest video and communication providers in the world. George was President of Sales and Marketing, growing the business for many years which enabled the company to go public in 2012. George has been recognized for his accomplishments;

• In 2009 when Multichannel News named him one of the publication's "40-under-40" most influential innovators in the industry
• In 1999 recipient of the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in NY

George has a passion for Entrepreneurship and serves as Chairman of Launch NY, a non-for-profit organization supporting the startup ecosystem for Upstate New York. George is a proud husband and father of two great kids.

Bill Zerella has over 30 years of experience in technology businesses, including pre-revenue start-ups and companies in excess of $1 billion in revenue. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Luminar Technologies, an autonomous vehicle technology company since 2018. Prior to joining Luminar, Mr.Zerella was the Chief Financial Officer of Fitbit Inc. (NYSE: FIT), a maker of wearable fitness devices, from 2014 to June 2018. During his tenure at Fitbit, the company grew from $270 million in revenue to over $2 billion in revenue, with sales at 45,000 locations in 86 countries around the world. Mr. Zerella was part of the team managing Fitbit’s IPO in 2015, raising $841 million, at that time the largest consumer electronics IPO in history. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Zerella served as Chief Financial Officer of Vocera Communications Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a provider of voice-controlled patient communications products for the health-care industry. In 2012, he helped guide Vocera to the public markets and raise $80 million in its IPO. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Zerella also served as Chief Financial Officer of Force10 Networks, a networking company that was acquired by Dell Inc. in 2011. Since 2016, Mr. Zerella has been a member of the board of directors of GroundTruth, a private global location technology company. Mr. Zerella is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. He also holds a B.S. in Accounting from the New York Institute of Technology.

A strategic business leader with nearly two decades of experience managing internet marketplaces around the globe, Vikas joined ACV in 2019 as Chief Operating Officer. In his role, Vikas manages tactical and strategic operations at ACV, where his teams are relentlessly focused on delivering the best customer experience every day.

Prior to joining ACV, Vikas held several leadership roles in North America and Europe at eBay for over a decade. These included launching and running the payments initiative for North America, growing the German consumer marketplace, overseeing and scaling operations for Canada’s largest classifieds site Kijiji, seeding and blitz-scaling classifieds businesses in Italy, Belgium, and Turkey, and overseeing a global technology program that supported 20+ markets. Prior to joining eBay, Vikas ran a technology program and sourcing strategy for Allstate’s independent agent business unit.

Vikas received a bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Florida and two master's degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a degree in technology policy. Outside of the office, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, reading, and a wide variety of sports.

Craig brings over 20 years of financial, legal and operating experience to ACV. As chief corporate development & strategy officer, Craig leads the company’s innovation plan, strategic opportunities and certain business affairs. Craig was drawn to ACV because of the enormity of the market opportunity and to work with a team dedicated to their customers and each other.

Previously, Craig held executive leadership positions at other rapidly scaling businesses, including CFO of a real estate technology company, COO/CFO of a tech-enabled consumer fitness business, and president/COO of an advertising exchange. Before that, he was a vice president in the investment banking division of The Blackstone Group, focused on mergers and acquisitions, special situation financings and restructurings. Craig began his career as an attorney at O'Melveny & Myers, where he worked on securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, private equity deals and complex litigation.

Craig has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of the office, Craig enjoys spending time in Brooklyn with his wife and kids.

A 20-plus year veteran of the auto industry, Michael Waterman brings deep experience in market development, hiring top sales talent and working with dealerships to enhance their wholesale process. Prior to his arrival at ACV, Michael most recently served in product and sales management roles at Dealersocket, Dealertrack and Adesa; after beginning his career managing dealerships.

Kate is a senior marketing professional with experience in a wide variety of marketing leadership roles within both B2B and B2C environments. Her experience spans strategic planning, brand building and messaging, public relations/social media, analyst relations, communications, event marketing, digital and direct marketing, analytics, eCommerce, and product innovation. She has a passion for building brands, developing team members and championing company cultures. Prior to joining ACV, Kate served as CMO for the national home furnishings retailer Arhaus. She also formerly served as Partner and SVP, Marketing for Rosetta (part of Publicis Groupe), one of the country’s leading interactive agencies. Her significant experience within the agency world gave her exposure to solving marketing and branding needs for companies across a wide range of industry verticals.

Kate’s focus is on increasing ACV’s brand awareness to keep pace with its rapid growth, go-to-market communications for new ACV products and initiatives, and partnership with sales to support customer acquisition and retention.

Kate has a BA from Smith College where she was a Sociology major with a focus on Immigration and Refugee Policy. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband and two children.

Bahman Koohestani is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of ACV (NASDAQ: ACVA) and was appointed to the position on September 1, 2021. Drawn to ACV by the company’s technological development potential of its flagship marketplace product ACV Auctions and the collection and utilization of ACV’s proprietary data, Bahman leads product and tech across the entire ACV portfolio to further innovate and transform the used car industry.

Bahman is a seasoned executive who brings over 25 years of leadership experience in technology, data analytics, product and operating strategies. He spent the majority of his career in the Bay Area where he most recently served as the CTO and Chief Product Officer (CPO) at LendingClub, focused on creating a culture of technology delivery, innovation and differentiation for their business. Specifically, Bahman created financial fitness products for their members and customers by way of leading all technology, data science, technology operations and product and design to deliver 21st century banking and credit services.

Prior to joining LendingClub, he served as CTO of Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics, Executive Vice President and CTO of NexTag, and has held numerous executive roles at various leading technology and fintech companies, including PayPal, Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide. Bahman started his career at Netscape in 1995, where he and his team commercialized the web and created the first-ever web browser.

Bahman has an eye for delivering value to customers, while increasing a company's competitive advantage and operational efficiency. He has a passion for entrepreneurship and has founded multiple companies throughout his career, including Delano Technology, where he grew the team from seven initial employees to 650 and took the company public on NASDAQ in 2000.

Bahman graduated from York University in Toronto with a BS in Computer Science. He and his wife have two children: a daughter who studies at NYU, and a son who resides in Florida and is a physician. Bahman enjoys playing golf, flying small private aircrafts and studying European history.

Sallie is a senior human resources professional who leads all ACV initiates related to People and Culture and is a strategic business partner reporting directly to ACV CEO George Chamoun. She has served as a strategic partner within large private and Fortune 200 companies to help achieve key business outcomes through the growth and development of their people. Her experience managing large acquisitions and the related integration efforts will be an important asset to ACV as the company continues to grow both organically and through acquisition. Sallie focuses on employee development, leadership coaching, change management, succession planning and team-building to create powerful experiences for employees, customers and clients. Sallie was a Vice President of Human Resources at Delaware North, one of the largest privately held hospitality and food service companies in the world. Sallie was a Director of Human Resources for Genuine Parts Company, a Fortune 200 Company engaged in the distribution of automotive and industrial replacement parts. Other related experience includes working for Wegmans Food Markets, a large privately held regional supermarket chain.

Sallie graduated from Widener University with her Masters in Human Resources Management and has a BS from the State University of New York College at Brockport where she had a dual Major of Communications with Business and Health Science. In addition, Sallie is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM -SCP) and an HRCI Certified Senior Professional (SPHR).

Responsible for managing all of ACV’s legal, regulatory and compliance matters, Leanne Fitzgerald, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at ACV, is a seasoned leader with experience working for public technology companies, most recently serving as General Counsel and Secretary for Cerence Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC), a provider of voice assistant solutions to automotive OEMs. Fitzgerald was appointed as ACV's Chief Legal Officer and Secretary in February 2022, providing counsel to the board of directors, executive team and additional senior management team members. She also serves as secretary to the ACV board of directors.

Previously, Fitzgerald was with Nuance Communications Inc., most recently serving as the company's Vice President, Associate General Counsel of Corporate Securities and Compliance and Assistant Secretary. Prior to joining Nuance, she served in a variety of positions with increasing responsibility in the legal department of EMC Corporation from 1994 to 2008, culminating as Associate General Counsel.

Fitzgerald holds a B.S. in engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, the Franklin Pierce Law Center. She is a member of the Massachusetts bar, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.