Postcards

How the power players do it - by Fortune senior editor at large Patricia Sellers

Carol Bartz on boards, Yahoo, and new CEO Mayer

October 8, 2012: 4:48 PM ET

It's been a long time since we've heard from Carol Bartz, the Yahoo (YHOO) CEO who was famously fired by phone last year—and told Fortune in no uncertain terms about working with a dysfunctional corporate board.

Bartz is no longer a CEO, but she still is the lead independent director at Cisco (CSCO) and, having been on eight boards in the past 20 years, understands what makes boards functional and not. In an exclusive interview at last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Bartz spoke her mind. Today's New York Times has a story about the Bartz interview by Claire Cain Miller, who attended the Summit. If you want to see Bartz in action talking about boards, Yahoo, and new CEO Marissa Mayer, here is my on-stage conversation with her at the MPW Summit:

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Senior Editor at Large, Fortune
Executive Director of MPW/Live Content, Time Inc.

Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.

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The Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership brings rising-star women from countries around the world to the U.S. for three-week mentorships with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them Ursula Burns of Xerox, Laura Lang of Time Inc., Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, and Tory Burch.

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