Founder and CEO Dazzle
Former Yahoo CEO (2012-2017). Google employee #20, first female engineer at Google. Led Yahoo through massive data breaches, NSA surveillance controversy, and sale to Verizon. Known for work-from-home ban.
During the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, Mayer donated $200,000 to oppose the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. Politico described this as 'deepening the governor's substantial Silicon Valley support.'
In 2015, Mayer and Yahoo General Counsel approved a classified government order under FISA Section 702 to build custom software scanning millions of Yahoo Mail accounts in real-time for the NSA/FBI. Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos resigned in June 2015 when he discovered the program, initially believing it was a hack. Mayer stated publicly that revealing such programs would be 'treason' and executives 'could go to prison.'
During Marissa Mayer's tenure as Yahoo CEO, the company suffered two of the largest data breaches in history - one in 2013 affecting all 3 billion accounts and another in 2014 affecting 500 million accounts. The breaches were not publicly disclosed until 2016 and 2017, raising questions about transparency.
In May 2013, Mayer championed Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, promising advertisers would 'not screw it up.' However, by 2016 Yahoo wrote down Tumblr's value by $712 million, and Verizon eventually sold it for less than $3 million.
In 2013, Marissa Mayer announced Yahoo would offer 16 weeks of paid maternity leave (up from 8 weeks) and added 8 weeks of paid paternity leave. The policy was seen as progressive for the time and aimed to compete for talent with other tech companies.
In February 2013, Yahoo leaked an internal memo from Mayer banning remote work, stating 'some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions.' The policy required around 200 remote workers to relocate to offices or leave. The move was criticized as regressive and sparked debate about workplace flexibility.