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Why Yahoo Picked Marissa Mayer, According To A Source Close To The Board
A week ago, a source close to Google relayed something interesting about Marissa Mayer—and not that she was in the running to be Yahoo’s CEO.
Mayer, we were told, was expecting her first child.
And now Mayer has confirmed the news to Fortune, telling the magazine that she’s due to give birth in October.
Mayer first learned she was pregnant in January. In mid-June, Yahoo’s headhunters called Mayer to ask if she was interested in becoming CEO. She disclosed her condition to Yahoo’s board. None expressed any issues.
That’s a huge step forward for corporate America. In 1992, Lawrence Perlman, then the CEO of IT services firm Ceridian, gave a speech asking, “A Pregnant CEO: In Whose Lifetime?”
In ours, that’s whose.
Mayer’s planning to take a maternity leave of a few weeks and work throughout. That’s in character for the famously workaholic executive.
Mayer’s husband, Zack Bogue, is a venture capitalist who invests in big-data startups.
Congratulations, Marissa and Zack!
One note: Mayer is exceptionally good at keeping secrets.
We asked Mayer directly about her pregnancy last week by email. She didn’t reply. We asked a number of sources who either expressed total ignorance or utter surprise. One typical reaction: “No way!”
So Mayer kept both her candidacy for the job of CEO at Yahoo and her pregnancy completely under wraps.
Impressive!