Marissa Mayer

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Mayer was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, the daughter of Margaret Mayer, an art teacher of Finnish descent, and Michael Mayer, an environmental engineer. She described herself as having been 'painfully shy' as a child and teenager. She participated in ballet, ice-skating, piano, swimming, debates, and the Brownies. In high school, she excelled in chemistry, calculus, biology, and physics, and was president of the Spanish club, treasurer of the Key Club, captain of the debate team, and captain of the pom-pom squad. Her debate team won the Wisconsin state championship and the pom-pom squad was the state runner-up. After graduating in 1993, she was selected by Tommy Thompson, then the Governor of Wisconsin, as one of the state's two delegates to attend the National Youth Science Camp. At Stanford University, Mayer initially intended to become a pediatric neurosurgeon but switched to symbolic systems, a major combining philosophy, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and computer science. She graduated with honors with a BS in symbolic systems in 1997 and an MS in computer science in 1999, both specializing in artificial intelligence. She interned at SRI International and Ubilab, and holds several patents in artificial intelligence and interface design. In 2009, the Illinois Institute of Technology granted her an honoris causa doctorate PhD degree in engineering. After graduating, Mayer joined Google in 1999 as employee number 20 and its first woman software engineer. She developed and designed Google's search offerings, worked on user interface design, and oversaw the layout of Google's unadorned search homepage. She was on the three-person team responsible for Google AdWords, which delivered 96% of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2011. She started the Associate Product Manager program in 2002 and became vice president of search products and user experience in 2005. In 2010, she was asked by then-CEO Eric Schmidt to head local, maps, and location services, a move widely viewed as a demotion. That year, Schmidt promoted her to Google's operating committee, making her the youngest member. She secured Google's acquisition of Zagat for $125 million in 2011.

Reader's Guide

Marissa Mayer's significance lies in her dual roles as a pioneering software engineer at Google and as a high-profile CEO of Yahoo! during a period of decline. As Google's first woman software engineer and employee No. 20, she shaped the company's search products, user interface, and advertising platform, notably AdWords, which generated 96% of Google's revenue in the first quarter of 2011. Her creation of the Associate Product Manager program cultivated future tech leaders like Bret Taylor and Justin Rosenstein. At Yahoo!, she was appointed president and CEO on July 16, 2012, effective the following day, amid falling financials and high turnover. She implemented policies such as a remote-work ban in February 2013 and a bell-curve performance review system in November 2013, which drew criticism and lawsuits. She led the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr on May 20, 2013; by 2016, its value had fallen by $230 million. Yahoo!'s stock price doubled over the 14 months after her appointment, but much of that growth was attributed to Yahoo!'s stake in Alibaba Group, acquired before her tenure. In 2017, Yahoo!'s operating business was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.48 billion. She announced her resignation on June 13, 2017. During her time at Yahoo!, she was paid a total of $239 million, mainly in stock and stock options.

Did You Know?

• Mayer was Google's employee No. 20 and its first woman software engineer.
• She was on the three-person team responsible for Google AdWords, which delivered 96% of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2011.
• In 2009, the Illinois Institute of Technology granted Mayer an honoris causa doctorate PhD degree in engineering.
• She secured Google's acquisition of survey site Zagat for $125 million in 2011.
• During her time at Yahoo!, she was paid a total of $239 million, mainly in stock and stock options.