It was only recently revealed that the mystery buyer behind a $43 million home sale in Orange County was William McDermott, a high-flying and longtime technology executive who is considered one of the country’s highest-paid CEOs, despite the deal being signed late last year.
In 2021, McDermott earned north of $165 million, primarily through stock awards and options. ServiceNow’s CEO became the third highest-paid executive of a S&P 500 company thanks to that salary. Compared to Apple CEO Tim Cook and JPMorgan head Jamie Dimon, McDermott’s pay package was nearly double.
In the past few years, McDermott has bought and sold several homes near ServiceNow’s Silicon Valley headquarters, in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton. From 2012-2018, the couple owned a lavish estate on Florida’s Jupiter Island that was previously the home of country singer Alan Jackson, but they have always maintained some sort of seaside residence.
The mansion is situated within the guard-gated Irvine Cove community, an exclusive seaside enclave whose residents include billionaire Sue Gross, Chin Yol Yi, Jon Favreau and James Burrows, creator of the hit TV show “Cheers. In McDermott’s neighborhood, there are only five oceanfront properties, and his new house is the most private of the five due to its location behind a long and gated driveway.
In 2005, Bob Cole, a retired subprime mortgage executive, sold the house for million, which has been on the market since 2014. The estate bounced on and off the market for the last eight years, asking as much as $55 million at one point, before falling to $41 million and rebounding to $45 million before finally being purchased by McDermott.
Several stories tall and adorned with luxury amenities, this Mediterranean villa-style mansion was built in the 1990s: an open kitchen with granite-topped island and premium appliances, al fresco dining patios, spacious living and family rooms with fireplaces, six ensuite bedrooms, a wood-paneled library, and bespoke finishes such as limestone floors, artisanal bronze, and delicately crafted millwork. Stunning sunset views that dance over the aquamarine sea are the property’s most outstanding feature, located right on sandy Irvine Cove beach.
During his tenure as CEO of German software company SAP, McDermott tripled SAP’s market cap from 2010-2019. Late in 2019, he became CEO of ServiceNow, a $80 billion cloud computing company based in Santa Clara, California.
Interestingly, McDermott’s new Orange County palace sits almost directly next to an even larger mansion owned by SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner, a German billionaire.
The former Facebook executive lives in California’s Bay Area and owns a $26 million home he purchased from Marcus in April. Over the past few years, he has bought and sold multiple estates in the Atherton area. With over 12,000 square feet of living space and seven bedrooms and ten bathrooms, the contemporary farmhouse estate was built in 2020.
