He's ba-aaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Or at least, he'd like to be.
In October 2012, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made her first big hire.
Google advertising executive Henrique De Castro would be Yahoo's COO.
Mayer paid up to get De Castro. Initial reports pegged his salary at $62 million.
At the time, we wondered if Mayer had made a huge mistake. Many of De Castro's former colleagues told us that he was a smart, analytical executive who would struggle to connect with ad agency types. They said he liked to make awkward jokes, and that he would find it difficult running a large organization.
De Castro did not last long at Yahoo. By January 2014, he was out. In a public announcement, Mayer made it clear the separation was her call.
Reports suggested his total compensation for a year's worth of work would be $100 million.
You might think that De Castro would take his nest egg, buy a chunk of Hawaii, and never be seen by the technology industry again.
You would think wrong.
We've heard from several industry sources that De Castro is currently on the hunt for a job.
He's met with a couple high profile venture capital firms, telling partners that he would love to join the board of a startup, or even become a mere advisor.
Those kinds of gigs are usually unpaid.
We've also heard that De Castro is speaking with startups directly about fulltime positions, including another chief operating officer job.
Sources say De Castro is very eager to improve his repution.
A source who met with him a few months ago tells us that De Castro is very sensitive about the impression that he was wildly overcompensated.
The source made a joke about it, and De Castro snapped at him.
De Castro will apparently tell anyone who listens that the only reason he got paid so much by Yahoo was to make up for money he was leaving behind at Google.
These days, De Castro is telling VC firms that he knows his reputation is in tatters and that he's ready to do the work needed to repair it.
De Castro has taken a lot of heat for his short time at Yahoo, but he deserves some credit for getting back in the ring.
Word is he's got a beautiful apartment in Paris. He has many model friends. He's got that $100 million.
Instead of merely indulging himself, he's all fired up and ready to get back to the grind. That's impressive.
De Castro did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Nicholas Carlson is the author of Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!, on sale January 6.