Jerry Yang

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This article is about Yahoo's founder. For the poker player, see Jerry Yang (poker player). For the Taiwanese painter, see Yang Chih-yuan (painter).
Jerry Yang

Jerry Yang
Born November 6, 1968 (1968-11-06) (age 39)
Taipei, Taiwan
Occupation Co-founder, CEO and Chief Yahoo!, Yahoo! Inc
Salary $1.00 [1][2]
Net worth ▲US$2.3 billion (2008) [3]
Spouse Akiko Yamazaki

Jerry Yang (traditional Chinese: 楊致遠; simplified Chinese: 杨致远; pinyin: Yáng Zhìyuǎn; born November 6, 1968) is an American entrepreneur and the Co-founder, CEO and Chief Yahoo! of Yahoo! Inc. As of 2008, his net worth is estimated to be US$2.3 billion and is ranked 524th among the richest people in the world according to Forbes. [3]

Contents

Early life

Born in Taipei, Taiwan on November 6, 1968, Yang moved to San Jose, California at the age of ten, with his mother and brother. His father 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 Sierramont Middle School, and 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 he studied in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, he co-created in April 1994 with David Filo an Internet website consisting of a directory of other websites called "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web". It was renamed "Yahoo!" (an exclamation). Yahoo became very popular, Yang and Filo realized the business potential and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995.[4] 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.[citation needed]

Personal life

Jerry Yang considers himself a Chinese American. [5] Yang is married to Akiko Yamazaki, who was raised in Costa Rica. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in industrial engineering. The couple met at the Stanford in Kyoto overseas program in 1992.

Yang is currently on the Board of Directors of Alibaba, the Asian Pacific Fund, Cisco and Yahoo! Japan, and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.[6]

In February 2007, Jerry Yang and his wife pledged USD $75 million to Stanford University, their alma mater, the bulk of which would be dedicated to the building of a new environmental building on campus. [7]

Criticism

Jerry Yang was criticized for a statement regarding the role of Yahoo! in the arrest of mainland Chinese journalist Shi Tao by Chinese authorities.

While in China, Shi Tao used a Yahoo email address to notify a pro-democracy website that the Chinese government ordered the Chinese media not to cover the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 on June 4th. Yahoo! provided the Chinese security agencies with the IP addresses of the senders, the recipients and the time of the message. Tao was subsequently convicted for “divulging state secrets abroad.” Yang was heavily criticized and Reporters Without Borders called Yahoo! “a Chinese police informant” whose actions led to the conviction of a journalist and writer.

Jerry Yang declared, "To be doing business in China, or anywhere else in the world, we have to comply with local law[s]." This was controversial, as critics claimed Yahoo! violated international law as well as a 1989 decision by the U.S. Congress to prohibit U.S. companies from selling "crime control and detection" equipment or software to the Chinese Government.[8]

The New York Times reported that political prisoner Wang Xiaoning and other journalists had brought a civil suit against Yahoo for aiding and abetting the Chinese government which resulted in torture that included beatings and imprisonment.[9]

More recently Jerry Yang was summoned to Washington to answer for Yahoo's comments regarding its role in the arrests of Shi Tao and other journalists in China.[10][11]

On November 14, 2007, Yahoo agreed to settle with affected Chinese dissidents, paying them undisclosed compensation. Yang stated, "After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo, and for the future." In response, Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, stated, "It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail. What a disgrace."[12]

Jerry Yang recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requesting her assistance in freeing the jailed dissidents.[13]

This change of heart has not been able to stop the chain of events that began with the arrest of jailed dissident Li Zhi, which resulted in another lawsuit being filed against Yahoo on behalf of Plaintiffs Zheng Cunzhu and Guo Quan who allege the loss of property and a garment business. The complaint alleges, "violation of international law including torture and prolonged detention, as well as unfair business practices, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and assault."[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ 10-Q Watch: Yahoo’s Acquisitions; Yang Salary | paidContent.org
  2. ^ Yahoo! Executives Compensation
  3. ^ a b #524 Jerry Yang - Forbes.com
  4. ^ Yahoo! Inc. - Company History
  5. ^ "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.
  6. ^ Yahoo! Inc. - Management Team
  7. ^ Alumni couple Yang and Yamazaki pledge $75 million to the university
  8. ^ Xue Li: Human Rights Lawyer Questions Yahoo!’s Aid to China in Arresting a Journalist,Epoch Times, Sep 23, 2005
    Obeying Orders, Washington Post, September 18, 2005
  9. ^ Chinese political prisoner sues in U.S. court, New York Times, April 18, 2007
    Chinese political
  10. ^ Yahoo summoned to Washington over Chinese arrests,c/net news blog, Oct 16, 2007
    [1]
  11. ^ Boudreau, John. "Lawmaker scolds Yahoo: 'Morally you are pygmies'", Mercury News, 2007-11-07. Retrieved on 2007-11-14. 
  12. ^ Kopytoff, Verne. "Yahoo settles with jailed Chinese journalists", SFGate, 2007-11-14. Retrieved on 2007-11-14. 
  13. ^ "Rice presses China on jailed dissidents", International Herald Tribune, 2007-02-27. Retrieved on 2007-02-27. 
  14. ^ Mills, Elinor. "Yahoo sued by jailed dissidents again", CNET News, 2007-02-27. Retrieved on 2007-02-27. 

External links