Lună: martie 2013

Google’s 20th employee stunned the tech world in July when she announced she was leaving the search behemoth to become the new CEO of Yahoo!. Mayer said that she „had an amazing time at Google,” but that ultimately „it was a reasonably easy decision” to take the top job at Yahoo!. In her new role she intends to leverage Yahoo!’s strong franchises in email, finance and sports. The 37-year-old, self-described „geek” joined Google in 1999 shortly after achieving a computer science masters from Stanford University. She is one of the youngest women on our list and joined her first corporate board in 2012: Walmart. Mayer says she has „long been a customer and admirer of the company.” On the same day she announced the move to Yahoo!, Mayer made another announcement to the press: she’s expecting her first child this fall.

Meg Whitman struck out in trying to become the governor of California in 2010, but it might have been a much easier job than the one she’s now on the hook for: turning around the struggling technology firm Hewlett-Packard. H-P shares are down a third this year, which makes the firm one of the lowest performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Whitman’s task a gargantuan one. At a conference in June she said it might take „four or five years” to fix the company. Her incentive stock options could be worth millions–but only if the stock price increases 40% in the next 24 months under her watch. Whitman also serves on the boards of P&G and ZipCar. She turned down Warren Buffett’s invitation in 2010 to join the Giving Pledge, in which billionaires agree to donate half their fortune to charity. Whitman was the CEO of eBay for 10 years, until early 2008, during which time the online auction company grew from $4 million in revenue to $7.7 billion. Her net worth has grown by $400 million since September 2011 thanks to a 50% surge in the value of her eBay shares.