Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer Chief Executive Officer
SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE[1])–Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer
as President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of
Directors effective July 17, 2012. The appointment of Ms. Mayer, a
leading consumer internet executive, signals a renewed focus on product
innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue for one of
the world’s largest consumer internet brands, whose leading properties
include Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, and
Yahoo! Search.
Mayer said, “I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the
internet’s premier destinations for more than 700 million users. I look
forward to working with the Company’s dedicated employees to bring
innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and
advertisers all around the world.”
Most recently, Mayer was responsible for Local, Maps, and Location
Services for Google, the company’s suite of local and geographical
products including Google Maps, Google Earth, Zagat, Street View, and
local search, for desktop and mobile. Mayer joined Google in 1999 as its
20th employee and led efforts for many of Google’s most
recognizable products, including the development of its flagship search
product and iconic homepage for over 10 years. Mayer managed some of
Google’s most successful innovations, launching more than 100 features
and products including image, book and product search, toolbar, iGoogle,
Google News, and Gmail – creating much of the “look and feel” of the
Google user experience.
Yahoo! Co-Founder David Filo said, “Marissa is a well-known, visionary
leader in user experience and product design and one of Silicon Valley’s
most exciting strategists in technology development. I look forward to
working with her to enhance Yahoo’s product offerings for our over 700
million unique monthly visitors.”
“The Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Marissa’s unparalleled
track record in technology, design, and product execution makes her the
right leader for Yahoo! at this time of enormous opportunity,” said Fred
Amoroso, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Mayer received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems and her M.S. in Computer
Science from Stanford University, specializing in artificial
intelligence for both degrees. She is credited as an inventor on several
patents in artificial intelligence and interface design.
“Yahoo!’s products will continue to enhance our partnerships with
advertisers, technology and media companies, while inspiring and
delighting our users. There is a lot to do and I can’t wait to get
started,” Mayer said.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! is a technology-powered media company, creating deeply personal
digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected
to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe.
Yahoo!’s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects
advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. Yahoo! is
headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the
pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net[2])
or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com[3]).
Marissa Mayer Biographical Information
Marissa Mayer was most recently Vice President of Local, Maps, and
Location Services at Google where she oversaw product management,
engineering, design and strategy for the company’s suite of local and
geographical products, including Google Maps, Google Earth, Zagat,
Street View, and local search, for desktop and mobile. She also curated
the Google Doodle program, celebrating special events on Google’s
homepage around the world.
During her 13 years at Google, Marissa held numerous positions,
including engineer, designer, product manager, and executive, and
launched more than 100 well-known features and products. She played an
instrumental role in Google search, leading the product management
effort for more than 10 years, a period during which Google Search grew
from a few hundred thousand to well over a billion searches per day.
Marissa led the development of some of Google’s most successful services
including image, book and product search, toolbar, and iGoogle, and
defined such pivotal products as Google News and Gmail. She is listed as
an inventor on several patents in artificial intelligence and interface
design.
Joining as the company’s first female engineer in 1999, Marissa played
an important role in developing Google’s culture. Her contributions
included overseeing the look-and-feel of the company’s iconic homepage
and founding the Associate Product Manager program, which has hired over
300 of the company’s future leaders and is considered the industry’s
ideal standard in transforming new computer science graduates into
executive leaders.
Prior to joining Google, Marissa worked at the UBS research lab in
Zurich, Switzerland and at SRI International in Menlo Park, California.
She graduated with honors from Stanford University with a B.S. in
Symbolic Systems and a M.S. in Computer Science. For both degrees, she
specialized in artificial intelligence. While at Stanford, she taught
computer programming to more than 3000 students and received the
Centennial Teaching and Forsythe Awards for her contributions to
undergraduate education. In 2008, the Illinois Institute of Technology
awarded her an honorary doctorate of engineering.
She has been honored with the Matrix Award by the New York Women in
Communications, as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum,
and as “Woman of the Year” by Glamour magazine. For four years running,
Fortune has named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business,
including when at age 33 she was the youngest woman ever included on the
list.
Marissa serves on the board of directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. She is
also on the board of various non-profits, including the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Ballet, and the New York City
Ballet.
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All
other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.
References
- ^ BUSINESS WIRE (www.businesswire.com)
- ^ pressroom.yahoo.net (cts.businesswire.com)
- ^ yodel.yahoo.com (cts.businesswire.com)