Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is resigning, according to the San Jose Mercury News and other sources. Yang has told Yahoo employees that he will stay on until a replacement is found.
Yang is one of the most high-profile Asian American chief executives in the country, and one of the great stories of the Internet boom. Yahoo started as a set of links to Yang and company co-founder David Filo’s favorite sites on the Internet. Yahoo grew to be one of the juggernauts of the Internet, but recently has fallen on hard times. Yang had the misfortune of being in charge during an awful time for the company, as the Merc story says.
There aren’t that many big corporations with Asian American CEOs, and it’s unfortunate that Yang’s tenure will be considered a failure by many. If there’s a glass ceiling, I hope Yang’s time at Yahoo doesn’t discourage other companies from considering Asian Americans for executive positions.
This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.