Marissa Mayer

Marissa Ann Mayer was born May 30, 1975, in Wausau, Wisconsin. She studied computer science and symbolic systems at Stanford University, where she earned a B.S. and M.S. and completed graduate work in artificial intelligence and related areas before joining industry. Mayer joined Google in 1999 as employee number ~20 and the company’s first woman software engineer, initially working on Google’s consumer search interface and later taking product and user-experience leadership roles. Over more than a decade she worked on or led teams for Google Search, Google Images, Google News, Google Maps, Google Books, Google Toolbar, iGoogle and Gmail, and she spearheaded Google’s Associate Product Manager (APM) program to recruit and train product leaders. In July 2012 Mayer left Google to become president and CEO of Yahoo!, where she pursued a product‑driven strategy that emphasized mobile, design, and acquisitions (including Tumblr in 2013) to revive the company’s consumer offerings. During her tenure Yahoo reorganized its product teams and launched refreshed mobile and content initiatives, but the company continued to face financial challenges and in 2016 announced the sale of its core internet business to Verizon; the deal closed in 2017, after which Mayer resigned. After leaving Yahoo Mayer co‑founded Lumi Labs in 2018, a consumer‑facing company focused on AI and media that was later renamed Sunshine; Sunshine launched products such as Sunshine Contacts and other consumer apps leveraging AI. Mayer has also been an investor and board participant in technology ventures and remains a public figure in discussions of product design, management, and leadership.