hilary-schneider

Yahoo's New York star relocating to Sunnyvale

Nicholas Carlson · 08/11/08 09:00AM

Former Right Media CEO and current Yahoo SVP Mike Walrath is moving offices from New York to Sunnyvale in October. He told Valleywag it's "a quality of life decision." If the move means a big promotion — a tipster tells us that's the rumor around Yahoo's New York office — Walrath wouldn't say. He's already in charge of Yahoo's advertising marketplaces group, requiring plenty of facetime at headquarters. But we think a promotion is likely, and deserved. So does a fellow Yahoo executive who told us Walrath is a particular favorite of Yahoo president Sue Decker and her closest lieutenant, Hilary Schneider, to whom Walrath currently reports.

Yet another Yahoo reorg

Owen Thomas · 08/05/08 03:40PM

A tipster tells us of an unannounced Yahoo reorg, this one affecting the marketing department. Details are scarce, but our first guess: Well-traveled Valley marketer Allen Olivo, who was named acting head of the department after marketing chief Cammie Dunaway left Yahoo for Nintendo. We'd heard Olivo reported to Hillary Schneider when she was in charge of Yahoo's advertising group, but a commenter, below, now says that was never the case. And with Yahoo president Sue Decker naming Schneider, her closest ally in the company, to a new role running the U.S. region, it no longer makes sense for global marketing to report to Schneider — which leaves room for Olivo to make his advancement permanent. That's all speculation, mind you — if you've heard more specifics, let us know.

Who's moving up, moving out or on the fence at Yahoo

Nicholas Carlson · 06/20/08 11:00AM

Yahoo CEO-in waiting Sue Decker continues to push the company through yet another reorganization. An her minions aren't happy about it. One told Kara Swisher: “I am not sure right now, with all this drama and all this tension from Microsoft’s failed takeover and the rest of it, why we have to do this. This feels crazy.” We figure the best way to do this is rip the band-aid off and move on. So below, who's in, who's up and who's out in quick and dirty bullet points.

Bleeding purple

Owen Thomas · 06/12/08 02:40PM

This is the week to leave Yahoo, it seems — not because something's happening. But because nothing is. Jeremy Zawodny (badge pictured here) and JR Conlin, two Yahoo veterans with 18 years of tenure between them, both took pains to say that their departures had nothing to do with Microsoft or Carl Icahn's bids for the company — believable, since an expected Yahoo-Google search partnership seems to have put both of those overtures into a deep freeze. Higher up the chain, reports confirm the departure of Usama Fayyad, Yahoo's chief data officer, and Jeff Weiner, head of Yahoo's Web-content properties.

Yahoo: Please ignore this silly Icahn mess and check out our deal with WPP

Nicholas Carlson · 05/16/08 11:00AM

When bad news about a company dominates the headlines, sometimes a company's PR team will craft bogus announcements to distract shareholders. Which is why today in the Wall Street Journal, you'll find that Yahoo and agency behemoth WPP announced a partnership to create "an electronic system for advertisers and Web sites to buy and sell online ad space." The deal isn't exclusive and in fact, it's a mere "extension of the technology partnership" Yahoo EVP Hilary Schneider told the Journal. Why didn't Schneider just try the old "Hey look! The space shuttle!" routine instead? That seems easier.

Who's in, who's out at Yahoo after a Microsoft takeover

Owen Thomas · 02/01/08 12:16PM

This morning, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the usual polite noises about "integrating" Yahoo's management into Microsoft. The reality? Come on. They're all fired, except for the geeks. If Microsoft had any respect for current management, they would have negotiated a friendly deal instead of launching a takeover. Most of the executive suite will be gone, I bet, within six months if the takeover succeeds. Here are the details on who's in and who's out, starting at the top.

No loyalty left at Yahoo

Owen Thomas · 10/28/07 04:08PM

I've noticed a trend in goodbyes from Yahoo: All the departing executives claim to "bleed purple." If so, Yahoo blood is thinner than water, because there's little love for president Sue Decker's new regime. Jacki Kelley is the latest executive to flee the sales side, now under Decker ally Hilary Schneider. She headed up sales strategy and worked on Yahoo Travel, one of the first areas of the portal to try to integrate banner and search-ad sales. Kelley is joining former Yahoo sales chief Wenda Harris Millard at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. This isn't just another departure, in other words — it's a show of loyalty.

Yahoo's new grudge match

Owen Thomas · 08/30/07 11:27AM

After yesterday's hastily announced reorganization, there are, besides president Sue Decker, two executives at Yahoo who matter: Hilary Schneider, newly crowned queen of ad sales and partnerships, and Jeff Weiner, king of content. Not all Yahoos are happy about Schneider's ascension, though. When Schneider first joined Yahoo, she was handed Yahoo's floundering "marketplace" businesses — local ads, classifieds, auctions, personals, online stores, and job listings. Most of those were businesses Weiner used to run — and more effectively, insiders say, than Schneider did.

How Yahoo botched its reorg news

Owen Thomas · 08/29/07 11:00PM

Rumor among the tech press corps is that Yahoo was set to hand the announcement of Sue Decker's big reorganization to Miguel Helft of the New York Times. It's a standard move, when a company has delicate personnel matters to unfold, to find a friendly, prominent outlet, and hand them an exclusive in exchange, it's hoped, for kinder treatment. But the PR strategy, executed by a department that's seen considerable turnover recently, failed. Unfortunately for the Times, but fortunately for our readers, Valleywag broke the news of Decker ally Hilary Schneider's rise and sales chief Gregory Coleman's fall, while AllThingsD reported other details of the reorg. The Times, a day late, now has a mostly inoffensive report. The story doesn't say this, however: You read it here first.

Sue Decker takes over Yahoo

Owen Thomas · 08/29/07 09:15PM

Victory is sweet. Redoing the org chart so suit your whims? Even sweeter. While Yahoo president Sue Decker may not have the CEO title yet, thanks to a sweeping reorganization, she has practically all the power. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD got a copy of Decker's memo to the staff. As we reported earlier, Hilary Schneider is running all of sales — in fact, anything that even vaguely looks like sales — and ad-sales chief Gregory Coleman is out. What's more fun, though, than that confirmation, is trying to figure out what functions don't report to Decker now. As best we can tell, the outliers, left to cofounders Jerry Yang and David Filo, include legal, HR, finance, and tech. The full memo, after the jump.

Yahoo sales chief may be out of the picture

Owen Thomas · 08/29/07 09:52AM

On AllThingsD, Kara Swisher has the scoop on some minor personnel moves at Yahoo. But surprisingly, the reporter who's normally so plugged into the mess at Yahoo may have missed the big news. One tipster claims that Gregory Coleman, the longtime head of sales, is on the way out, to be replaced by Hilary Schneider, who currently runs Yahoo's e-commerce businesses, such as they are. The ad salesforce is supposed to get the word today, with the official announcement coming tomorrow.