Terry Semel
| Terry Semel | |
|---|---|
Semel at the Web 2.0 Conference 2005
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| Born | February 24, 1943 Brooklyn, New York |
| Residence | East Gate Old Bel Air, Los Angeles |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Bachelor of Science |
| Alma mater | Long Island University |
| Spouse(s) | Maryann Semel (divorced) Jane (Bovingdon) Semel (m. 1977 - present) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Mildred Wenig Semel Ben Semel |
Terry Semel (born February 24, 1943) is an American corporate executive who was the chairman and CEO of Yahoo! Incorporated. Previously, Semel spent 24 years at Warner Bros., where he served as chairman and co-chief executive officer. In June 2007, Semel resigned as CEO due in part to pressure from shareholders' dissatisfaction over Semel's compensation (in 2006 - salary $1, stock options worth $70 million) and performance.
Contents
Early life
Semel was born to a Jewish family[1][2] in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mildred (née Wenig) and Ben Semel.[3] His father was a women's coat designer and his mother was a bus company executive. He was raised in Bay Terrace, a community in Bayside, Queens. He was the middle child and has two sisters.[4] At the age of 23, he graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn with a B.S. degree in accounting.
Career
Yahoo compensation
In April 2001, Semel was granted stock options with an SEC Fair Value of over $110 million as a bonus to join Yahoo. During June 2006, Terry Semel's annual salary was reduced to one dollar.
Yahoo!-China cooperation controversy
As CEO, Semel approved Yahoo!'s cooperation with Chinese officials to release previously confidential Yahoo! information to the Chinese government. This action by Yahoo! was not well received and Semel showed signs of regret as to how that information was being used. For example, in a widely publicized exchange at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference, Semel was asked if Yahoo! would have cooperated with Nazi Germany. In response, Semel, who is Jewish, stated, "I don’t know how I would have felt then." He added, "I don’t feel good about what’s happening in China today." [5] When questioned on this topic in a Q & A discussion with Peter Bazalgette at The Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention in 2005, his response was "We have to abide by the laws in the countries in which we operate"
Lost chance to take over Google
After joining Yahoo, company founders Jerry Yang and David Filo suggested he look at buying Google, whose founders looked up Yahoo's inventors. Semel had dinner with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, asking them what their business was with Yahoo paying only $7 million annually as its biggest licensor of Google search technology. So Semel proposed to buy Google. They replied that they wanted $1 billion and didn't want to sell. Semel said he'd think about the price. Another dinner and Semel agreed to the $1 billion. Larry Page and Sergey Brin replied that they wanted $3 billion and didn't want to sell.[citation needed]
Resignation
Semel ended his six-year tenure as chief executive officer Monday, June 18, 2007 and handed over the reins to co-founder Jerry Yang in the Internet icon's latest attempt to regain investor confidence. Semel, 64, remained chairman in a non-executive role.[6] Besides naming Yang as its new CEO, Yahoo appointed Susan Decker as its president. Decker, who had been recently promoted to oversee Yahoo's advertising operations, had widely been seen as Semel's apparent heir. Semel later resigned from his post as non-executive Chairman from Yahoo completely on January 31, 2008.
Other activities
Semel is currently co-chair of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)[7] In 2005, Semel was given the UCLA Medal, that University's highest honor, and the "Legend in Leadership Award" from the Chief Executive Leadership Institute of the Yale School of Management.
Personal
Semel was married to Maryann Semel; they divorced in 1974.[citation needed] In 1977,[3] he married Jane Bovingdon,[8] a former secretary to the actress Susan George. Semel has a son, Eric (b. March 15, 1969),[9] and three daughters, Courtenay Semel (b. November 11, 1979), Lily Bovingdon Semel (b. 1985), and Kate Semel (b. March, 1992).[citation needed].
See also
References
- ↑ Bart, Peter. The gross: the hits, the flops-- the summer that ate Hollywood, p. 41. St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. ISBN 0-312-25391-5. Accessed August 25, 2011. "Semel, who was Jewish, worked his way up through an equally unglamorous side of the business — distribution — earning a reputation as cooldeal-maker and patient strategist."
- ↑ Jewish Business News: "Former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel Praised for Leadership" August 22, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The International Who's Who, 1997-98 p. 1361
- ↑ Terry Semel Biography
- ↑ Yahoo Defends China Cooperation, The Wall Street Journal
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.lacma.org/overview
- ↑ UCLA Newsroom: "Semel Family Donates to UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute to Promote Better Understanding of the Brain and Human Behavior" by Dan Page June 17, 2004
- ↑ New York Times: "Private Sector; A Bet on British Online Gambling" by SUZANNE KAPNER August 12, 2001
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! 2001–2007 |
Succeeded by Jerry Yang |
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with unsourced statements from September 2008
- Articles with unsourced statements from February 2016
- Articles with unsourced statements from February 2009
- 1943 births
- Living people
- American technology chief executives
- American computer businesspeople
- Businesspeople in software
- American Jews
- Yahoo! employees
- Long Island University alumni
- People from Brooklyn
- People from Bayside, Queens
- People from Queens, New York
