Jerry Yang ( born November 6, 1968) is a Chinese American entrepreneur and the co-founder, former CEO (Chief Yahoo) of Yahoo! Inc.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan on November 6, 1968, Yang moved to San Jose, California at the age of eight, with his mother and brother. His father died when Yang was two. He claimed that despite his mother being an English teacher, he only knew one English word (shoe) on his arrival. Mastering the English language in three years, he was placed into an AP English class.
Yang graduated from Sierramont Middle School, and Piedmont Hills High School, then went on to receive his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
While he studied in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, he co-created in April 1994 with David Filo an Internet website consisting of a directory of other websites called "Jerry and Dave's Guide to the World Wide Web". It was renamed "Yahoo!" (an exclamation). Yahoo became very popular, Yang and Filo realized the business potential and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995. They took a leave of absence and postponed their doctoral programs indefinitely.
Yahoo! started off as a web portal with a web directory providing an extensive range of products and services for online activities. It is now one of the leading internet brands and has the most trafficked network on the internet.
On November 17, 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that Jerry Yang would step down as CEO as soon as the company found a replacement. He had been criticized by many investors, including Carl Icahn, for not increasing revenues and the Yahoo! stock price.
On January 13, 2009, Yahoo! named Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive, effectively replacing Yang. Yang regained his former position as "Chief Yahoo" and remains on Yahoo's board of directors.
Yang is married to Akiko Yamazaki, who was raised in Costa Rica. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in industrial engineering. The couple met at the Stanford University in Kyoto overseas program in 1992.
Yang is currently on the Board of Directors of Alibaba, the Asian Pacific Fund, Cisco and Yahoo! Japan, and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.
Yang was also criticized by shareholders for rejecting an offer of $33 a share from Microsoft in May 2008 - Microsoft subsequently walked away from the negotiations. In November 2008 the shares were valued at only $14 and Google also decided not to proceed with commercial search advertising arrangements under negotiation influenced by the concerns voiced by the US authorities regarding the effect on competition in the market. On July 29, 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a search deal to compete against Google, after the Bing search of Microsoft was successfully launched earlier in June.
