Postcards
Marc Andreessen on Yahoo choosing Mayer as CEO
July 16, 2012: 5:43 PM ETHere's what venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says about Yahoo's (YHOO) naming Google (GOOG) VP Marissa Mayer as its new CEO: "I'm super happy for Marissa," he told Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer at Fortune Brainstorm Tech this afternoon in Aspen, Colorado.
Andreessen, who is on the boards of Facebook (FB) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), calls Mayer, a 37-year-old Stanford-trained engineer who was Google's employee No. 20, "a product-centered CEO."
If Yahoo had wanted a "sales-centric CEO," he noted, the board would have chosen insider Ross Levinsohn, who has been interim CEO since the board pushed out Scott Thompson earlier this year. Apparently, most Yahoo employees were betting that Levinsohn would secure the top job.
Will Levinsohn stay at Yahoo? The board hopes he does, especially since Yahoo's recent reorganizations have placed many of Levinsohn's followers in senior positions. Retaining Levinsohn will likely require masterful diplomacy by Mayer, who is the youngest woman ever to make Fortune's Most Powerful Women list. She ranked No. 38 on the list last year.
The other big question, of course, is whether Yahoo can be revived following unsuccessful runs by a series of CEOs including Thompson, Carol Bartz and co-founder Jerry Yang. "There have been very few web turnarounds," Andreessen noted, adding that one Silicon Valley turnaround proves it can be done. "Apple showed that tech companies can be turned around…spectacularly," Andreessen said. Though, he added, the highest standard for CEOs, Steve Jobs, is very, very hard to come by.
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Power Point: What would Steve Jobs do?
"The threshold for the release of the first product should be, 'What would Steve Jobs do?'"
-- Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and Netscape co-founder, who often evokes Apple (AAPL)'s maestro CEO in his advice to entrepreneurs. Andreessen is quoted in the Fortune cover package, "Steve Jobs: CEO of the decade," hitting newsstands Friday. Fortune's retrospective of "all things Steve" includes timelines, online photo galleries, and testimonials from Jobs' friends and colleagues. MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 5, 2009 5:45 PM ETPosted in: Apple, CEOs, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, Marc Andreessen, Postcards, Power Point, Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, technology -
Behind Ning's $750 million play
by Patricia Sellers
Ning CEO Gina Bianchini is getting lots of curious looks and occasional "Congratulations!" here at Fortune Brainstorm Tech. The news leaked this week that her start-up raised $15 million at a company valuation of...get this, $750 million.
That's a stunning number, and incidentally, she didn't ask for the new funding. On Tuesday night, before Bianchini and I both arrived here in Pasadena, California for Fortune's annual tech confab, we MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jul 23, 2009 3:11 PM ETPosted in: CEOs, FORTUNE MPWomen, Gina Bianchini, Google, Marc Andreessen, media, Ning, Postcards, Silicon Valley, technology -
Behind Meg Whitman's bid to save California
Here's the new cover of Fortune.
Yes, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman is vying for her next big gig--governor of California--Ronald Reagan-style. She's got a Western look and a simple message: creating jobs, cutting government spending, and improving education. "The three-bucket theory," Whitman calls it, contending that corporate employees and voters as well need clear, memorable messaging from leaders of any kind.
The horse on the cover, Brandy, isn't Whitman's, but MORE
Patricia Sellers - Mar 18, 2009 3:15 PM ET -
How I discovered the Internet
I've gotten to know Gina Bianchini. She's the CEO of Ning, the Silicon Valley startup that supplies the infrastructure to help you build your own social networking Web site. Think Home Depot for the social-network set. The other day, she "introduced" me via e-mail to her chairman and financial backer, Marc Andreessen. I had to laugh and tell both of them that Marc and I actually had met before, though MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 29, 2008 12:01 PM ET
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In her first public interview since taking on the CEO gig at Yahoo, Marissa Mayer outlines her priorities both in and out of the company. Watch
Brenda Barnes famously quit a big job to be with her kids. Years later, a massive stroke nearly killed her--and her daughter returned the favor. Watch
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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