Marissa Mayer: Veteran Google Exec Jumps Ship For Yahoo CEO Position

Marissa Mayer, a 13-year Google employee and executive, will be moving over to rival Yahoo to serve as the company’s new CEO, making her one of the most prominent women in both Silicon Valley and corporate America.

The New York Times reports that Mayer, until Monday, was employee No. 20 at Google, and was one of the few public faces of the company. She was responsible for years for the look and feel of Google’s popular products, like the plain white Google search page, Gmail, Google News, and Google Images.

Mayer, 37, was most recently put in charge of the company’s location and local services (like Google Maps), and oversaw more than 1,000 product managers. It seemed to be a good fit, with her engineering background, and the fact that her first job description with Google included computer programming.

According to PCWorld, Marissa Mayer will replace Scott Thompson, who took over as CEO in January resigned in May after reports surfaced that he did not actually possess a computer science degree. Thompson was picked after Carol Bartz was fired by Yahoo’s board after being hired in 2009.

Mayer, who will also serve as Yahoo’s president and hold a seat on the board, will start her new job on Tuesday, and it seems she will have a lot of work to do. Marissa Mayer stated after the announcement that:

“I look forward to working with [Yahoo’s] dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world.”

What do you think of Marissa Mayer’s decision to leave Google after 13 years to become CEO at Yahoo?