While on vacation in Africa in late December, Marissa Mayer received an e-mail from her boss, Jonathan Rosenberg, asking her if she was leaving Google. This was not a normal question to be coming from the CEO of the Internet’s most heavily-trafficked search engine. There have been numerous rumors of her leaving Google and offices and web sites all across Silicon Valley have been buzzing with tales of her possible departure.
None of these rumors, however, were true. She assured her boss, Mr. Rosenberg, and Ms. Mayer, who is Google employee number twenty and the company’s first female engineer, still says that she isn’t leaving. She is known as the gatekeeper of Google’s home page, and one of the company’s most unique and closely watched public faces.
In a recent interview with The New York Times she had this to say about her departure from Google, “it could not be further from the truth, it made me realize that people don’t understand me.” Ms. Mayer may not be understood, but she is an always popular guest on television news programs and talk shows, as well as the subject of countless interviews in magazines and news papers.
She is also a regular of the San Francisco social scene, and as the “go to girl” of one of the world’s hottest companies, she is well on her way to becoming a bone-a-fide celebrity in the sometimes cloistered world of computer geeks.
Ms. Mayer invites attention; in the last year she has created a buzz for such actions as creating spread sheets for finding the perfect cupcake recipe, attending lavish ballet, art and fashion galas, and paying $60,000 at charity auctions to have lunch with Oscar de la Renta. Not to mention the famous parties she throws at her $5 million penthouse atop the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco. Her live-out-loud lifestyle seems so un-Silicon Valley, but at the same time is perfectly attuned to what Google is all about.
But, despite whatever labels may be attached to her, Ms. Mayer, 33, plays a very serious role at Google. Almost every new design, from the wording on a Google page, to the color of a Google toolbar, must pass muster with her before the legions of Google users will ever see it. She has earned the respect of her superiors at Google and this allows her to do her job almost completely unfettered. Some say that if she were to leave the company, its familiar white home page would never look the same.
Related Website Directory Categories:
