Yahoo's board of directors plays musical chairs: 4 out, 2 in
After Jerry Yang's recent departure and the appointment of Scott Thompson as CEO, Yahoo's shakeup continues on its board of directors.
Yahoo's chairman of the board, Roy Bostock, addressed shareholders in a new letter published on Tuesday afternoon.
Not only is Bostock not going up for re-election to the board, but neither are three other board members: Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern. Here's Bostock's reasoning:
Finally, the board has concluded that in order to accelerate the Company’s transformation, the combination of a new Chief Executive Officer with an enhanced team of independent directors would provide Yahoo! with the expertise and perspectives necessary to drive innovation and growth going forward.
At least two new executives have been elected to the board to fulfill part of the void. First up is former president and CEO of Rovi Corporation, Alfred Amoroso, who also served on the world-wide management committee at IBM.
He's followed by Maynard Webb, Jr., former chairman of LiveOps, Inc. as well as former chief operating officer at eBay.
We can expect the addition of more new board members as well soon as the search is still underway, led by Patti Hart, CEO of International Game Technology, Inc., who chairs Yahoo's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
By the time Yahoo's annual meeting rolls around, all of the directors in place will have only been on the board since 2010. Certainly Yahoo needs some fresh ideas, but hopefully these new directors are all familiar enough with Yahoo and its uneasy history over the last few years to make some significant progress while avoiding remaking past mistakes.
Related:
- Yahoo's Q4 sales light as new CEO takes helm
- Yahoo's Yang resigns: Why it's a good, but late move
- Email titans Google, Microsoft, Yahoo aim to battle phishing
- Silicon Valley's dirty little secret: The 'Startup Boom' is a disguised jobs fair for big corporations
- Bing to use Facebook, Twitter more in fight against Google