Carol Bartz has been appointed CEO of Yahoo Inc. As CEO, Carol replaces Jerry Yang, who is one of the co-founder of Yahoo.Yahoo's decision to bring in an outsider apparently irked its president, Susan Decker, who also was a candidate for the CEO job. Both Decker and Bartz are on Intel Corp.'s board of directors.
Bartz's track record indicates she will move quickly to build upon Yahoo's strengths while doing her best to shed the weaknesses.
Bartz spent nearly 17 years at Autodesk, which specializes in making design software for architects and engineers. She was the San Rafael-based company's CEO from 1992 until 2006, when she stepped aside to become executive chairman - a job that paid her a $500,000 salary.
While Bartz was CEO at Autodesk, the company's annual revenue increased from nearly $300 million to $1.5 billion.
Bartz had established her management chops in nine years at Sun Microsystems Inc., where she eventually became the No. 2 executive behind the server maker's then-CEO, Scott McNealy. She also has worked at Digital Equipment Corp. and 3M.
Yahoo also is far larger than Autodesk, with annual revenue of more than $7 billion and roughly 13,000 employees, nearly twice the size of Autodesk's work force.
Bartz also will have to coexist with Yang, who will play the role of "Chief, Yahoo" while remaining on the company's board. Those two also share a boardroom together as directors at Internet gear maker Cisco Systems Inc.
Bartz is known for a no-nonsense approach. Before graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1971 with a degree in computer science, Bartz was a cheerleader, homecoming queen and a cocktail waitress - a job that helped pay her college tuition.
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