Yahoo Names Carol Bartz New CEO

Yahoo ... happy days may be here again for the struggling internet company. The Associated Press reports:

Yahoo Inc. named technology veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive Tuesday, bringing in a no-nonsense leader known for developing a clear focus _ something that has eluded the struggling Internet company during a three-year slump.

The decision to lure Bartz, 60, away from software maker Autodesk Inc. ends Yahoo's two-month search to replace co-founder Jerry Yang, who surrendered the CEO reins after potentially lucrative deals with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. both collapsed.

Bartz's appointment could set the stage for Microsoft to renew its efforts to buy Yahoo's Internet search operations as a way of mounting a more serious threat to Google, the market leader. Microsoft had been reluctant to deal with Yang because he rebuffed several previous overtures, including a $47.5 billion offer to buy Yahoo in its entirety last May.

Microsoft subsequently withdrew that bid, valued at $33 per share, and now Yahoo's stock price hovers around $12. Yang had hoped to placate shareholders by using Google's superior technology to sell some of the ads alongside Yahoo's search results, but that idea unraveled in November after federal antitrust regulators threatened to block the deal.

Bartz "is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for," said Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock.

There is one person who is not real happy with the decision to bring in Bartz.

Yahoo's decision to bring in an outsider apparently irked its president, Susan Decker, who also was a candidate for the CEO job. She now plans to resign after a transitional period. Both Decker and Bartz are on Intel Corp.'s board of directors.

What struck me about this story is that the person who might have assumed they would be considered for the CEO position was Yahoo president Susan Decker. It's not often that one woman replaces another in the running for a top stop in corporate America. Maybe things are looking up for women. Both women are on Intel Corp.'s board of directors.

Bartz's track record indicates she will move quickly to build upon Yahoo's strengths while doing her best to shed the weaknesses.

"She is able to see the essence of things because she doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about how people are going to feel," said Nilofer Merchant, a former Autodesk manager who is now CEO of technology consultant Rubicon. "She is driven by doing the best thing for the business."

Forrester Research analyst David Card said Yahoo desperately needs someone to crack the whip after years of drifting aimlessly despite having a vast online audience, which it touts as 500 million people worldwide. [...]

While Bartz was CEO, Autodesk's annual revenue ballooned from nearly $300 million to $1.5 billion. Perhaps more importantly to Yahoo's long-suffering shareholders, Autodesk's stock price rose by an annual average of nearly 20 percent during Bartz's reign, beating the 10.6 percent annual average for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Seems impressive to me, but everyone has their critics.

Despite Bartz's resume, she will likely face questions about whether she is a good fit at Yahoo because she lacks any background in advertising _ the primary source of Yahoo's income.

Yahoo also is far larger than Autodesk, with annual revenue of more than $7 billion and roughly 13,000 employees, nearly twice the size of Autodesk's work force.

As one of the first women to run a technology company, Bartz is used to being underestimated. Even after she had been Autodesk's CEO for years, some of her male counterparts occasionally mistook her for an administrative assistant while she was attending industry conferences.

Now what was I just saying about things getting better for women?

Play Ball!

This isn't exactly a new story, but it's one I wanted to give space to at Yikes.

A 16-year-old Japanese girl signed with a regional baseball team Tuesday, becoming the country's first female professional baseball player.

Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft.

"I still don't feel like I've really become a pro baseball player, but I want to do my best," Yoshida said at a news conference after signing her contract. "My specialty is the knuckleball, so I really want to be able to get batters out using it effectively."

The Cruise are more like a farm team and a far cry from Japan's mainstream pro teams such as the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. But the 5-foot, 114-pound Yoshida has broken a barrier in baseball-crazy Japan, where women are normally relegated to amateur, company-sponsored teams or to softball.

Yoshida, who started playing baseball when she was in second grade, said she wants to emulate Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career as a knuckleballer.

The fledgling Japanese League, based in western Japan, is hoping to find enough success to eventually challenge the likes of the long-established Central and Pacific leagues. Those leagues, home to the best Japanese players, have become an increasingly fertile ground for talent headed to the U.S. major leagues.

Challenging the Stained Glass Ceiling

The Associated Press reports:

A Georgia priest facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women said Friday he plans to visit the Vatican with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.

Roy Bourgeois, 69, a Maryknoll priest and nationally known peace activist, ran afoul of Vatican doctrine by participating in an Aug. 9 ceremony in Lexington, Ky., to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Recent popes have said the Roman Catholic Church cannot ordain women because Christ chose only males as apostles.

"Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?" Bourgeois said in a telephone interview. "As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God."

Bourgeois makes a valid point, who decides when someone is called? I've heard this same comment from some of my gay friends who are ordained pastors.

It's too bad the Catholic Hierarchy isn't filled with men like Roy Bourgeois.

Breaking the Brass Ceiling

The military now has it's first female four star general, General Ann E. Dunwoody. The Associated Press reports:

Call it breaking the brass ceiling. Ann E. Dunwoody, after 33 years in the Army, ascended Friday to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general. At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody looked back on her years in uniform and said it was a credit to the Army — and a great surprise to her — that she would make history in a male-dominated military.

"Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding," she told a standing-room-only auditorium crowd. "Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family.

"It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession," she added. "So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, `Not in my wildest dreams.'

"There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, `Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.' "

It's been a long climb for women in the military. Without the ability to be part of a direct combat unit, women have a longer road to advancement.

There are 21 female general officers in the Army — all but four at the one-star rank of brigadier. It was not until 1970 that the Army had its first one-star: Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

Women now make up about 14 percent of the active-duty Army and are allowed to serve in a wide variety of assignments. They are still excluded from units designed primarily to engage in direct combat, such as infantry and tank units, but their opportunities have expanded over the past two decades.

Dunwoody received her Army commission after graduating from the State University of New York in 1975.

Congratulations General Dunwoody!

Danica Patrick Breaks Another Glass Ceiling

Anyone following her career knew it was just a matter of time before Danica Patrick would break the glass ceiling of IndyCar racing -- and that day has arrived!

Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.

Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later.

"It's a long time coming. Finally," Patrick said. "It was a fuel strategy race, but my team called it perfectly for me. I knew I was on the same strategy as Helio and when I passed him for the lead, I couldn't believe it. This is fabulous."

The 26-year-old Patrick won in her 50th career IndyCar start, taking the lead from Castroneves on the 198th lap in the 200-lap race.

"I think Danica is such a fantastic person and I'm thrilled for her that the monkey is finally off of her back," said Michael Andretti, co-owner of Andretti Green Racing. "We have all believed in her and she proved today that she is a winner. Frankly, I think this is the first of many." [...]

At the 2005 Indy 500, she nearly won the pole and became the first female driver to lead the race en route to a fourth-place finish. It was the best finish by a woman at Indy, and helped her take rookie of the year honors.

Now, it's on to Indianapolis, and let's win there!

First Woman to Lead Top Med School

To counter the previous post!

from The Washington Post:

Duke University on Monday named a Harvard researcher as the first woman to lead its medical school, making her the only woman permanently at the helm of one of the nation's top 10 medical schools.

"The fact that in 2007 there are still firsts for what women can do in medicine says something about how difficult it can be. I hope this does not seem so unusual a few years from now," said Nancy C. Andrews, who will officially take over at Duke on Oct. 1.

Andrews, 48, succeeds R. Sanders Williams, who has been promoted to senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Andrews joined the Harvard faculty as an instructor in pediatrics in 1991 and rose through the academic ranks, most recently serving as dean for basic sciences and graduate studies at Harvard Medical School.

She will be the only woman permanently leading a medical school listed among the top 10 in the annual survey by U.S. News & World Report, school officials said. At Harvard Medical School, which also appears on that list, a woman, Barbara J. McNeil, is serving as acting dean.

You go girl

At a time in her life when many her age are breaking bones, Elsie McLean is breaking records on the golf course. That's right, 102-year-old Elsie McLean is the oldest person ever to hit a hole-in-one on a golf course. McLean broke the age record of 101 set by Harold Stilson in 2001.

Because of the slope of the green, McLean and her partners couldn't see where her ball landed after she teed off.

"Where's my ball?" McLean asked.

Her friends, Elizabeth Rake and Kathy Crowder, found it in the cup.

"I said, 'Oh, my Lord. It can't be true. It can't be true.' I was so excited. And the girls were absolutely overcome," McLean said.

It was McLean's first ace.

"Well everybody wants a hole-in-one, and I said, 'Why can't I have a hole-in-one?' I came within inches once," McLean told television station KNVN.

McLean, who used a driver, broke the age record of 101 set by Harold Stilson in 2001 at Deerfield Country Club in Florida.

McLean, who has been featured in golf magazines before, will appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on April 24 to celebrate her
accomplishment.

"For an old lady," she said, "I still hit the ball pretty good."

That you do, Elsie, and congratulations!

NOTE: McLean is pictured above with photographer Stephanie Rausser of Golf For Women magazine. GFW featured McLean in a 2006 article "Who Are You Calling Old?"

Drew Faust - Breaking Harvard Glass Ceiling

Harvard University has announced it will name its first woman president since its founding in 1636. The Washington Post reports:

Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a leading historian on the American South, will be formally appointed president as early as this weekend, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.

Faust replaces Lawrence Summers, whose tumultuous tenure was marked by controversial remarks he made about women.

Faust, a popular figure on campus known for her collegiality, will succeed the blunt Summers, an economist and former U.S. treasury secretary whose combative five-year tenure as president ended last year. His departure followed a faculty revolt after he suggested that the shortage of elite female scientists may stem in part from "innate" differences between men and women.

Many educators said Harvard's decision would send a message to other major research universities in the country -- 14 percent of which are headed by women.

With Faust's selection, half of the eight Ivy League schools will be run by women: Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Brown University.

Faust will end the succession of 27 white men who have held the president's title at America's oldest institution of higher education. She will take the reins from Derek Bok, 75, a former 20-year Harvard president who took over as interim leader when Summers left.

Women are well over 50 percent of student bodies at many schools, it's time we see more women in leadership positions. Congratulations President Faust!

Republicans plane wrong about Speaker Pelosi

Never mind that under Republican control Congress and the White House have lost more than $8 Billion of our taxpayer dollars. That's not the big issue on Republican minds these days ... the more important issue is whether or not Speaker Pelosi should have access to a plane that will take her non-stop across country.

Following 9/11, it was decided that the second in line to the President, the Speaker of the House, should travel by military plane for added security during trips back home. For Dennis Hastert, that meant a quick trip to Chicago -- but for the new speaker the trip is to the other coast.

Republicans decided to make a sink about something Speaker Pelosi didn't even do ... request a bigger plane. What makes this non-story even worse, is that media outlets are simply reporting the Republican spin, and not taking the time to find out the real story.

In an amazing turn of events, even the White House thinks this is a "silly story."

White House spokeman Tony Snow took a different tact, telling reporters Thursday morning, "This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker."

I'd like to suggest to the Republicans that a much better use of their time would be to find the missing $8 billion dollars. And to the press, why don't you look into the missing $8 billion dollars as well! That seems like a much better use of your time than blindly reporting a non-story about Speaker Pelosi.