Marissa Ann Mayer (/ˈmaɪ.ər/; born May 30, 1975)[4] is an American business executive and investor who served aspresident andchief executive officer ofYahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold toVerizon. She was a long-time executive, usability leader and key spokesperson forGoogle (employee No. 20).[5][6][7] Mayer later co-founded Sunshine, a startup technology company.[8]
Mayer was born inWausau, Wisconsin, the daughter of Margaret Mayer, an art teacher ofFinnish descent,[9] and Michael Mayer, an environmental engineer who worked for water companies.[10][11][12] Her grandfather, Clem Mayer, hadpolio when he was seven and served as mayor ofJackson, Wisconsin, for 32 years.[13][14][15] She has a younger brother.[10] She would later describe herself as having been "painfully shy" as a child and teenager.[4]
She "never had fewer than one after-school activity per day," participating in ballet, ice-skating, piano, swimming, debates, and theBrownies.[10] During middle school and high school, she took piano and ballet lessons, the latter of which taught her "criticism and discipline, poise, and confidence".[4] At an early age, she showed an interest in mathematics and science.[16]
When she was attendingWausau West High School, Mayer was on thecurling team and the precision dance team.[4] She excelled in chemistry, calculus, biology, and physics.[17] She took part in extracurricular activities, becoming president of her high school's Spanish club, treasurer of the Key Club, captain of the debate team, and captain of the pom-pom squad.[4]
Her high school debate team won the Wisconsin state championship and the pom-pom squad was the state runner-up.[13] During high school, she worked as a grocery clerk.[18] After graduating from high school in 1993,[19] Mayer was selected byTommy Thompson, then theGovernor of Wisconsin, as one of the state's two delegates to attend theNational Youth Science Camp in West Virginia.[20]
Intending to become a pediatric neurosurgeon,[21] Mayer took pre-med classes atStanford University.[4] She later switched her concentration tosymbolic systems,[22] a major which combined philosophy, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and computer science.[10] At Stanford, she danced in the university ballet'sNutcracker, was a member of parliamentary debate, volunteered at children's hospitals, and helped bring computer science education to Bermuda's schools.[23]
During her junior year, she taught a class in symbolic systems, withEric S. Roberts as her supervisor. The class was so well received by students that Roberts asked Mayer to teach another class over the summer.[4] Mayer went on to graduate with honors from Stanford with aBS insymbolic systems in 1997,[22][23][24] and anMS incomputer science in 1999.[25] For both degrees, her specialization was inartificial intelligence. For her undergraduate thesis, she built travel-recommendation software that advised users in natural-sounding human language.[21]
Marissa Mayer speaking at the Google "Search On" event in 2010
After graduating from Stanford, Mayer received 14 job offers,[22] including a teaching job atCarnegie Mellon University[23] and a consulting job atMcKinsey & Company.[4] She joinedGoogle in 1999 as employee number 20.[30][31] She started out writing code and overseeing small teams of engineers, developing and designing Google's search offerings.[6] She became known for her attention to detail, which helped land her a promotion to product manager,[32][33] and later she became director of consumer web products.[13][34] She oversaw the layout of Google's well-known, unadorned search homepage.[34][35][36] She was also on the three-person team responsible forGoogle AdWords, which is an advertising platform that allows businesses to show their product to relevant potential customers based on their search terms. AdWords helped deliver 96% of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2011.
Marissa Mayer at an interview while working for Google
In 2002, Mayer started the Associate Product Manager (APM) program, a Google mentorship initiative to recruit new talents and cultivate them for leadership roles. Each year, Mayer selected a number of junior employees for the two-year program, where they took on extracurricular assignments and intensive evening classes.[4][37] Notable graduates of the program includeBret Taylor andJustin Rosenstein.[37] In 2005, Mayer became Vice President of Search Products and User Experience.[38] Mayer held key roles inGoogle Search,Google Images,Google News,Google Maps,Google Books,Google Product Search,Google Toolbar,iGoogle, andGmail.[39]
Mayer was the vice president of Google Search Products and User Experience until the end of 2010, when she was asked by then-CEOEric Schmidt to head the Local, Maps, and Location Services.[40] In 2011, she secured Google's acquisition of survey siteZagat for $125 million. While Mayer was working at Google, she taught introductory computer programming at Stanford and mentored students at the East Palo Alto Charter School.[13][21] She was awarded the Centennial Teaching Award and the Forsythe Award from Stanford.[41]
On July 16, 2012, Mayer was appointed president and CEO ofYahoo!, effective the following day. She was also a member of the company's board of directors.[42][43] At the time of her appointment, Yahoo's numbers had been falling behind those of Google for over a year and the company had been through several top management changes. To simplify the bureaucratic process and "make the culture the best version of itself", Mayer launched a new online program called PB&J. It collects employee complaints, as well as their votes on problems in the office; if a problem generates at least 50 votes, online management automatically investigates the matter.[44] Some of Mayer's management policies were criticized byThe New York Times[45] andThe New Yorker.[46]
In February 2013, Mayer oversaw a major personnel policy change at Yahoo! that required all remote-working employees to convert to in-office roles.[47] Having worked from home toward the end of her pregnancy, Mayer returned to work after giving birth to a boy, and built a mother's room next to her office suite—Mayer was consequently criticized for the ban onremote work.[48] In April 2013, Mayer changed Yahoo!'smaternity leave policy, lengthening its time allowance and providing a cash bonus to parents.[49] CNN noted this was in line with otherSilicon Valley companies, such asFacebook and Google.[50][51]
On May 20, 2013, Mayer led Yahoo! to acquireTumblr in a $1.1 billion acquisition.[52][53] In July 2013, Yahoo! reported a fall in revenues, but a rise in profits compared with the same period in the previous year.[54] In September 2013, it was reported that the stock price of Yahoo! had doubled over the 14 months since Mayer's appointment.[55] However, much of this growth may be attributed to Yahoo!'s stake in the Chinese e-commerce companyAlibaba Group, which was acquired before Mayer's tenure.[56] By 2016, the value of Tumblr had fallen by $230 million.[57]
In November 2013, Mayer instituted a performance review system based on abell curve ranking of employees, suggesting that managers rank their employees on a bell curve, with those at the low end being fired.[58][59] Employees complained that some managers were viewing the process as mandatory.[59] In 2015, former Yahoo! editorial director Scott Ard filed a lawsuit alleging that the employee performance-rating system unfairly affected male employees and resulted his firing.[60][61] This case was dismissed in March 2018.[62] In February 2016, former Yahoo! employee Gregory Anderson filed a lawsuit alleging that the company’s performance management system disguised layoffs as terminations for the purpose of evading state and federalWARN Acts.[63][64][65] Anderson's suit was dismissed in 2017.[66]
Over the course of Mayer’s tenure, Yahoo! created $43 billion in market capitalization, tripled its stock value, grew mobile users to over 650 million, and built a $1.5 billion mobile ad business.[67] However, the company saw a decrease in advertising revenue at Yahoo! and a 50% reduction in staff.[68] Its stocks fell by over 30% in 2015, while 12 key executives left the company.[69] In December 2015, Yahoo Inc. investors SpringOwl andStarboard Value criticized Mayer's performance, suggesting that she be replaced as CEO.[70][71] By January 2016, it was estimated that Yahoo!'s core business had anegative worth.[72]
In February 2016, Mayer confirmed that Yahoo! was considering the possibility of selling its core business.[73] In 2017, the company's operating business was acquired byVerizon Communications for $4.48 billion.[74][75] It was reported that Mayer could receive a $23 million termination package upon the sale ofYahoo!Inc. toVerizon.[76] Mayer announced her resignation on June 13, 2017.[67] During her time at Yahoo!, she was paid a total of $239 million, mainly in stock and stock options.[68]
On November 8, 2017, along with several other present and former corporate CEOs, Mayer testified before theUnited States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding major security breaches at Yahoo during 2013 and 2014.[77][78] In 2017, she defended FormerUber CEOTravis Kalanick from allegations of sexual misconduct, stating he was "unaware of the toxic culture brewing at Uber because of the company’s rapid growth."[79]
After leavingYahoo! in 2017, Mayer started Lumi Labs with former colleague Enrique Munoz Torres. The company is based inPalo Alto and is focused onartificial intelligence and consumer media.[80] On November 18, 2020, Mayer announced that Lumi Labs would be rebranded as Sunshine[81] at the same time as she announced its first product: Sunshine Contacts.[82] Sunshine Contacts claims to improve users' iPhone contacts and Google contacts[83] using intelligent algorithms, contact data, public sources, and more.[81] In November 2024, Sunshine launched the Shine app, an artificial intelligencephotosharing platform.[84][85]
Mayer was named toFortune magazine's annual list of America's50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 with ranks at 50, 44, 42, 38, 14, 8 and 16 respectively.[97] In 2008, at age 33, she was the youngest woman ever listed.[citation needed]
In September 2013, Mayer became the first CEO of aFortune 500 company to be featured in aVogue magazine spread.[10]
In 2013, she was also named in theTime 100, becoming the first woman listed as number one onFortune magazine's annual list of the top 40 business stars under 40 years old.[102] Mayer madeFortune magazine history in 2013, as the only person to feature in all three of its annual lists during the same year: Businessperson of the Year (No. 10), Most Powerful Women (at No. 8), and 40 Under 40 (No. 1) at the same time.[103] In 2014, Mayer was ranked sixth onFortune's40 under 40 list,[104] and was ranked the 16th most-powerful businesswoman in the world that year according to the same publication.[105] In March 2016,Fortune then named Mayer as one of the world's most disappointing leaders.[106]
On December 24, 2015, Mayer was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 14 in the list of 500 Most Influential CEOs.[107]
Mayer briefly datedLarry Page in the early 2000s while he was the CEO of Google.[109][110] Mayer married lawyer and investor Zachary Bogue on December 12, 2009.[32][111]
On the day Yahoo! announced her hiring, in July 2012, Mayer revealed that she was pregnant;[112][113][114] she gave birth to a boy on September 30, 2012.[115] Although she asked for baby name suggestions viasocial media,[116] she eventually chose the nameMacallister from an existing list.[117] On December 10, 2015, Mayer announced that she had given birth to identical twin girls,[118][119] Marielle and Sylvana.[120]
Mayer isLutheran,[121] but she has said—referencingVince Lombardi's "Your God, your family and theGreen Bay Packers"—that her priorities are "God, family and Yahoo!, except I'm not that religious, so it's really family and Yahoo!."[122][123]
^abcdElgin, Ben (October 2, 2005)."Managing Google's Idea Factory".Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived fromthe original on July 20, 2012. RetrievedOctober 9, 2014.at Stanford, where she taught computer science to undergrads
^Guthrie, Julian (February 8, 2008)."The adventures of Marissa". San Francisco Magazine. Archived fromthe original on October 9, 2014. RetrievedOctober 9, 2014.
^Shabbad, Rebecca "Senate panel holds hearing on Equifax, Yahoo security breaches";CBS News; November 8, 2017.
^Justice Dept. "U.S. Charges Russian FSB Officers and Their Criminal Conspirators for Hacking Yahoo and Millions of Email Accounts"; U.S. Department of Justice; March 15, 2017.
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