Wow, this really was unexpected… Surprising… Shocking even… But in this craving for innovation and creative thinking tech world of today, perhaps this is the perfect match. (ex) Google veteran Marissa Mayer is now the new CEO of Yahoo.
The ground begun shaking when CNBC was first to report in a Tweet that Yahoo appointed Marissa Mayer as president and CEO of Yahoo. Shortly after, Yahoo confirmed the amazing news in a press release, stating that Mayer will take the leads from tomorrow July 17th.
Mayer joined Google in 1999 as a software engineer and quickly moved up the ladder. She considered one of the top executives in Google which had an exclusive spot at the company’s highly-selective roundtable next to the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
In her last role at Google she was VP for local, maps and location services after filling a handful of top managing positions at Google’s most prominent products which includes Gmail, Image, Google News and of course the company’s flagship, the search engine.
Here’s what the hero of the hour (and hopefully much longer), Marissa Mayer had to say:
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.
I think that what makes this whole story so thrilling and exciting is that Mayer is definitely one of the most brilliant women in Silicon Valley which climbed to the elite of the technology industry at such a young age (37 years old), a great talent which Yahoo so desperately needs.
For Yahoo, Mayer just might be the best person for the job in such crucial times for the company when it MUST return to innovate, an area where Mayer is highly familiar with and have a lot of an experience despite her relatively young age.
Luckily for Mayer, she doesn’t has any big shoes to fill. Yahoo’s last permanent CEO, Scott Thompson, only lasted about four months on the job before being dumped after he got caught lying on his resume, no less, while his big grimy moves were firing thousands of people from Yahoo and suing Facebook for BS patent infringement claims.
Since then, Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn managed to settle with Facebook and stable all the negative press sentiment followed this whole legal fiasco, so Mayer at least doesn’t have to deal with this nonsense as she begins her new role.
I’m holding my fingers crossed for Marissa Mayer in her new position and hope she will succeed bringing Yahoo back to the center of internet innovation. Strong competition on the web is vital for users, business owners and even rivals. Yahoo with Marissa Mayer at the front, can play a big part in it.
