So looks like Yahoo is going to undertake a board overhaul. Good. What took them so long? The Wall Street Journal says that activist investor Dan Loeb has been asking for the heads of chairman Roy Bostock and board members Arthur Kern, Vyomesh Josh and Sue James. He reportedly wants co-founder Jerry Yang out as well.
Damn straight — get them (the board) out of there. The Journal reports that Yahoo has hired executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles to help find new board members. Here is my unsolicited advice — from a post I wrote in September 2011.
Here are the kind of people I am thinking Yang should be calling — Paul Maritz of VMWare, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Verizon
CEOChairman Ivan Seidenberg and Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm. They can bring insights into cloud, social and mobile landscapes. To get a better grip on Silicon Valley and early stage innovation, Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Reid Hoffman of Greylock Capital are two names that come to mind.Mickey Drexler of J.Crew or American Express CEO Ken Chenauth and Ford CEO Alan Mullaly. They would bring vital insight into retail, money and transportation in the era of “connectedness.” And to top it off, Yang should get former News Corp. president Peter Chernin, who started his own entertainment company, to sign on as the chairman of the board.
Okay, perhaps I am being too optimistic about Sandberg, who likely will have her hands full with Facebook this year.. But this a good short list to start with, especially if new CEO Scott Thompson wants to make innovation his focus.
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