Marissa Mayer, the the former Google executive, has two major new developments in her life; she is the newly appointed CEO of Yahoo and is pregnant with her first child, a baby boy.
Mayer's appointment to Yahoo was announced yesterday and many hope she will give the struggling search engine a much needed boost in terms of finances and in management. Mayer also tweeted the news of her new baby last night and is due in the fall.
Mayer, 37, apparently informed the board about her pregnancy during the selection process, but board members decided to weigh only her tech accomplishments, All Things D reported. It is the first child for Mayer and her husband, investor and entrepreneur Zack Bogue. Mayer is the search giant's fifth CEO in five years and some are skeptical of her ability to turn the company around.
"It's an incredible challenge," said management consultant Kevin Coyne, who teaches business strategy at Emory University, according to WSJ. "If she succeeds, it will be a landmark case for women everywhere." Coyne says she has a lot on her plate; pregnancy, age and limited management track record and time will tell whether she can turn Yahoo around.
Her net worth is believed to be $300 million, according to therichest.org in its estimations earlier this year. Mayer is one of Google's one of the company's oldest employees and its first female engineer. During her time at Google, Mayer was highly involved in the development of key products like Gmail and Maps. She serves on the board of Wal-Mart Stores, as well as on the boards of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New York City Ballet.
Many have taken to Twitter to weigh in on the news of Marissa Mayer as the new CEO and about her recently announced pregnancy. Some reacted enthusiastically while, others seem to see it as an opportunity to continue the fight for better workplace policies for women. Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of The Atlantic's recent cover story, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," replied to one tweet about the new CEO: "Some women can [have it all], absolutely. & I applaud her! but she makes my point. She's superhuman, rich, & in charge. Still need change!"
Yahoo is struggling to bounce back from years of financial decline and internal turmoil. Jerry Yang, one of Yahoo's co-founders and CEO's from June 2007 to January 2009, had been criticized by many investors, including Carl Icahn, for not increasing revenues and stock price, while there has been a exodus of executives.
In January 2009, Yahoo appointed Carol Bartz, the former executive chairman of Autodesk, as CEO. She was then replaced by CFO Tim Morse in September 2011 when he was named Interim CEO.
Earlier in January this year, Scott Thompson, former President of PayPal, was named the new chief executive officer. He was later replaced in May by Ross Levinsohn as the company's interim CEO. Thompson left the company after activist shareholders revealed that he had exaggerated his academic credentials. Jerry Yang left the company and resigned from the board in January this year.
