News
Yahoo Appoints Google Maps VP as New CEO
- By Gladys Rama
- July 17, 2012
Yahoo has appointed former Google executive Marissa Mayer as its new president and CEO, effective Tuesday, the company announced this week.
Mayer's hiring comes two months after Yahoo's previous CEO, Scott Thompson, stepped down amid controversy surrounding falsified academic degrees on his résumé. Thompson himself had been CEO for only four months; he accepted the role in January this year following the ouster of his predecessor, Carol Bartz.
Mayer will also have a seat in Yahoo's board of directors, according to Yahoo's announcement. For the beleaguered Internet company, Mayer's hiring signifies "a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue."
Mayer joined Google in 1999 as its first female engineer and 20th employee, according to her executive bio. Most recently, she served as Google's vice president of Local, Maps and Location Services. In that position, she was responsible for a number of Google's geographical search products, including Google Earth, Street View and Google Maps.
Mayer held several other vice president and director roles in her 13 years at Google and contributed to the launch of over 100 Google products, including Gmail, Google News, and image and product search. She was also a key figure in the development of Google's famously minimalist search homepage.
Mayer joins Yahoo during a rough streak of major executive exits, acquisition rumors, mass layoffs, floundering share prices and, two months ago, a near-proxy fight with its largest outside shareholder that resulted in an overhaul of its board.