Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today announced the hiring of Michael Young as chief technology officer. Mr. Young brings to Redfin a long history as a leader and an architect at successful start-ups.

Most recently, he was a lead program manager for Microsoft BizTalk Server. For eight years prior, he was the chief architect at Plumtree Software, where he worked as an architect and an engineering director from its start-up days to its public offering. Prior to Plumtree, Michael worked as an architect at enterprise software company ViewStar, joining at an early stage and remaining through a successful acquisition by Mosaix, which was later acquired by Lucent Technologies.

Mr. Young graduated with honors in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

"No company seeks to change the real estate industry in a more fundamental way than Redfin," said Mr. Young. "And the Internet now has become the driving force in the industry: real estate buyers and sellers will see more information, enjoy the convenience of working online, get traditional personal service as needed for the big decisions. They'll also save thousands in the process. I feel lucky and excited to join the Redfin team making it happen."

"Over the past year, it has become clear that real estate consumers want electronic service, and that it can be delivered at a radically different price with extremely high rates of customer satisfaction," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "Now our challenge is to extend our ability to automate the paperwork, and to scale our business to major markets across the United States. Mike is perfect for the job ahead: technically brilliant, unnaturally poised and, above all, fearless."

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry's first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey as well as details on the agent's negotiating performance and deal history. Redfin's service is available in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York's Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and Sacramento. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.