“Management is defense. You basically say, 'This is the direction; this is where we're heading,' and then it's my job to get everything else out of the way. All the other things that can become a distraction keep us from executing well. Get those out of the way, because the team ultimately needs to run in that direction and execute well.”

American business executive, software engineer, and investor

Marissa Mayer is an American business executive, software engineer, and investor. Born in 1975, she is known for her leadership roles at Google and later as president and chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when the company was sold to Verizon. At Google, Mayer was a long-time executive, a usability leader, and a prominent spokesperson, and she was the company’s first woman software engineer. She later co-founded Sunshine, and after its assets were acquired in 2025, she founded the artificial intelligence company Dazzle AI.