After the scandal-plagued tenure of its last boss, Yahoo! has mined Google's talent pool and recruited Marissa Mayer as its global chief executive.
Mayer joins Yahoo! after 13 years at Google, during which she worked in a variety of roles including engineer, designer, product manager and executive. She was most recently vice president of Local, Maps, and Location Services and also curated the Google Doodle program.
She was Google's first female engineer in 1999 and led the development of a suite of Google services including image, book and product search, toolbar and iGoogle and was involved with Gmail and Google News.
Prior to Google, Mayer worked at the USB research lab in Switzerland and at SRI International in California.
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 monthly unique visitors.
Yahoo! chairman of the board of directors Fred Amoroso said: “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.”
Mayer said: “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 also joins the Yahoo board of directors.
She replaces Scott Thompson, who was fired in May after he was caught with a falsified resume. Thompson himself had only been brought on in January to take over from Carol Bartz who had been let go due to financial and brand issues.
Executive vice president and head of global media Ross Levinsohn had served as interim chief executive.
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