Yahoo has chosen former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as its next CEO to replace Jerry Yang, according to a Wall Street Journal report, in what is seen by many as one of the greatest turnaround challenges of the internet age, with an economic slowdown and a legacy of miscues in 2008 which most notably include the unsuccessful takeover bid from Microsoft and a failed advertising deal with Google.
Bartz is really facing quite a storm here but she is no stranger to running a large company. She currently serves at Autodesk as the executive chairman and was CEO from 1992 to 1996, a period in which the company diversified its product line and saw its revenue rise from $285 million to $1.523 billion. Bartz has also worked for Sun Microsystems and serves on the board of both Cisco Systems (with Jerry Yang) and Intel (alongside Yahoo president Susan Decker). You can read more about her career and achievements here.