The selection last week of Carol A. Bartz to be CEO of Yahoo Inc. is receiving generally favorable reviews.
The former CEO of Autodesk Inc., Bartz, 60, will bring determination and decisiveness to the task of restoring Yahoo’s Internet fortunes, analysts say.
“Her main qualification is that (she) has been tested in life as few people in Silicon Valley have,” The Economist wrote. “Her trials have turned her into a hardened, disciplined, occasionally ruthless, but often inspiring boss - exactly the sort of leader, it could be argued, that Yahoo now desperately needs.”
Bartz’s trials have been personal and professional.
According to a profile in More magazine, Bartz’s mother died when she was 8, and her father was a severe disciplinarian. When she was 12, her grandmother took her in.
Bartz worked her way through college, where she was one of a handful of women studying computer programming and computer science.
After graduation from the University of Wisconsin, she got a job at 3M Corp. where she was the only woman in a division of 300.
“3M was where I first realized that this corporate thing against women really existed,” Bartz told More. “I was definitely singled out.”
From 3M, Bartz went on to Digital Equipment Corp. and then Sun Microsystems, where she became vice president of worldwide field operations.
In 1992, Autodesk Inc., a maker of design software, picked Bartz to be its chairman and CEO.
In the week before she started her new job, Bartz learned that she had breast cancer. She worked a few weeks and then took a month off for surgery and recuperation. She then worked through seven months of chemotherapy.
Later, Bartz said that she may have asked too much of herself in returning to work so soon.
Bartz took over Autodesk at a time when it was a “classic, chaotic engineer’s paradise,” according to Forbes magazine.
“Employees disdained project deadlines and performance reviews,” Forbes wrote. “The software concern funded outlandish projects, like a company that wanted to dispose of industrial garbage in space. Dogs sat in on meetings.”
Bartz got rid of underperforming employees, instituted deadlines and turned the company around. (The dogs stayed. “It wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight,” a colleague said.)
In 2006, Bartz stepped down as Autodesk’s CEO, though she stayed on as chairman of the board.
At Yahoo, she replaces Jerry Yang, the company’s co-founder, who stepped down as CEO in November.
Yang is noted for a more easygoing management style than Bartz’s, a style that may have let the company drift and miss opportunities to expand.
He retains the title of chief Yahoo, and he remains on Yahoo’s board of directors.
Yang and Bartz both serve on the board of Cisco Systems Inc., and Yang reportedly urged Yahoo to select Bartz as its CEO.
Market analysts expect that Bartz may resume talks with Microsoft Inc. over the sale of Yahoo’s search engine business, a deal that Yahoo rebuffed last year.
Then again, Bartz may not explore the sale. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Bartz had told Yahoo employees that her “gut” told her not to look into the deal.
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4 Comments
#1. elementaryfinance 01.18.2009
I think this is a great step forward for Yahoo! I’m a little concerned about her thoughts on the Microsoft deal as I think it would give them some muscle as they try to take on Google. All in all, I think this will give Yahoo a new direction.
#2. Rick Owen 01.18.2009
After years of using Yahoo as my ‘home page’ on three separate browsers I finally switched all to Google News. Why? Because recent unprofessional and offensive articles have begun to prevail on the Yahoo news headlines. I was especially irritated by endless negative articles about the current illness of the Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Also, a demeaning and smirking article on a former West Virginia University basketball player who decided to marry, raise kids and become a teacher rather than pursue a professional ball career. I see a trend and I don’t like it. Goodbye Yahoo! Your new CEO better get rid of the non-professional hacks you have or you will disappear as a company!
#3. R Parker 01.18.2009
For several months my Yahoo “homepage” has been broken, and I am told by customer disservice that their engineers are working on the problem. I can only wonder if Bartz will get actual Yahoo features working again or if she will continue to sacrifice the end-user experience in the name of profits.
#4. Vicki 01.18.2009
To Rick Owen: Yahoo! doesn’t write the articles for Yahoo! News. They get these from local papers or the AP feeds. Look at the bylines.
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