Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang | |
|---|---|
 Jerry Yang | |
| Born | November 6, 1968 |
| Occupation(s) | Co-founder and Chief Yahoo!, Yahoo! Inc. |
| Spouse | Akiko Yamazaki |
Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨致远; traditional Chinese: 楊致遠; pinyin: Yáng Zhìyuǎn; born November 61968) is the Chinese American[1] co-founder of Yahoo! Inc. He is one of the two Chief Yahoo!s, board director and a former executive of the company. As of 2006 his net worth is about US$2.4 billion and is ranked 317th among the world's richest people according to Forbes.[2]
Early life
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Yang moved to San Jose, California at the age of ten, with his widowed mother (Lily) and younger brother (Ken). His father had died when Yang was two. He claimed that despite his mother being an English teacher, he only knew one English word (shoe) on his arrival. Mastering the English language in only three years, he was soon placed into an AP English class.
Yang graduated from Piedmont Hills High School, then went on to receive his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Career
While undertaking his Ph.D. studies in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, he co-created an Internet website consisting of a directory of other websites in April 1994 with David Filo called "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web". It was renamed Yahoo, a backcronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle", but Yang and Filo insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth". Yahoo became really popular, Yang and Filo realized the business potential and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995.[3] They took a leave of absence and postponed their doctoral programs indefinitely.
Yahoo! started off as a web portal with a web directory to providing an extensive range of products and services for online activities, it is now one of the leading internet brands and has the most trafficked network on the internet.
Personal life
Yang married Akiko Yamazaki, a Japanese American raised in Costa Rica. She is an anthropologist.
Yang is currently on the Board of Directors of Alibaba, the Asian Pacific American Community Fund, Cisco and Yahoo! Japan, and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.[4]
Yang created controversy based on his public comments regarding Yahoo's role in the imprisonment of reporters in the People's Republic of China, in particular his defense of Yahoo's willingness to turn over the identity of Chinese reporters who were later jailed.[citation needed] Shi Tao was among those imprisoned.
Jerry Yang and his wife pledged to give USD $75 million for Stanford University, his alma mater that would be used for building a new environmental building, etc.[5]
External links
- Jerry Yang's profile in Yahoo!
- Jerry Yang's political donations
- Yang and Yamazaki: one photo
- 1999 "Time Digital 50" snippet on Yang
- Stanford Jerry Yang and David Filo Bio
- Mark & Marc Interview
- MetroActive: A Couple of Yahoos
- IT Conversations audio interview from the Web 2.0 conference - 7 October 2004
- Jerry Yang, Yahoo and the Shi Tao case
- Yang's comment on the Shi Tao case
Reference
- ^ "I'm a Chinese American, but understand the industry and business in China", Jerry Yang, Closing Session at Web 2.0, 2004-10-07. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
- ^ http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/R4Q2.html
- ^ http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/history.cfm
- ^ http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/management.cfm
- ^ http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february21/donors-022107.html