Local Internet Exec Nabs Survivor: Nicaragua Slot

A Mill Valley Internet executive has been picked as one of the 20 castaways on the upcoming season of the hit CBS show Survivor.

Marty Piombo, a 48-year-old Strawberry resident and senior vice president of business development and sales at Mountain View-based Web communications firm Sococo, said he is ready to battle it out for Survivor: Nicaragua's $1 million grand prize.

"When I'm not in a professional setting or with my family, almost everything I do involves pushing yourself in extreme situations, whether it's climbing 14,000-foot peaks and sitting in an ice cave with no food or water or pushing myself on 100-mile bike rides in desperate desert conditions," Piombo said in a welcome video on the show's website. "That's what's really compelling to me about this game."

Like the show's previous two seasons, Survivor: Nicaragua features 20 castaways. The show's contestants are divided into two tribes: Espada (wearing blue), with of 10 castaways over age 40, and La Flor, with 10 castaways age 30 and under. The show's youngest contestant is 20, while the oldest is 67-year-old Jimmy Johnson, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins and a longtime TV studio analyst with Fox NFL Sunday.

In a short bio on the site, Piombo said his personal claim to fame is "rescuing an injured climber off Mt. Whitney from 13,000 feet in the dead of winter." He called cyclist a cancer survivor Lance Armstrong as his inspiration in life, listed his hobbies as winter alpinism, rock climbing and cooking.

Piombo, a former executive with Yahoo, said the cutthroat business world gives him an edge on Survivor.

"I didn't get to manage $400 million worth of business at Yahoo by just being a nice guy, or not just by being a nice guy," he said.

Survivor: Nicaragua premieres Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. on CBS.