Susan Decker

Susan Decker
Susan Decker at a Yahoo! all hands meeting, 2008
Susan Decker
Born	Susan Lynne Decker 17 11, 1962
Birthplace	Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive, investor, board director
Known for	President of Yahoo! Inc. (2007–2009), co-founder of Raftr
Education	Harvard Business School (MBA), Tufts University (BS)

Susan Lynne Decker (born November 17, 1962) is an American business executive who served as president of Yahoo! Inc. from June 2007 to January 2009, overseeing the company's day-to-day operations while co-founder Jerry Yang held the position of chief executive officer. Before ascending to the presidency, Decker spent several years as Yahoo!'s chief financial officer, where she earned recognition as one of the top financial executives in the technology sector. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and educated at Tufts University and Harvard Business School, Decker built a career that spanned Wall Street equity research, corporate finance at one of the world's most prominent internet companies, and board service at a range of major corporations and nonprofit organizations. Following her departure from Yahoo!, Decker pursued interests in technology entrepreneurship, co-founding the social networking platform Raftr in 2017, and took on governance roles at companies including Berkshire Hathaway, Automattic, and SurveyMonkey. Her career trajectory from securities analyst to corporate president to board director has made her a notable figure in American technology and business leadership.

Early Life

Susan Lynne Decker was born on November 17, 1962, in Memphis, Tennessee. Details about her parents and early childhood in Memphis remain limited in publicly available sources. Decker grew up during a period of significant economic and cultural change in the American South. She would eventually leave Tennessee to pursue her higher education in the northeastern United States, attending Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Education

Decker earned her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where she studied economics and computer science. She subsequently attended Harvard Business School, where she earned a Master of Business Administration degree. Her dual academic background in technology and business provided a foundation for her later career, which would bridge the financial and technology industries. Decker was later honored by her graduate alma mater with an Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School, one of the institution's most prestigious recognitions of professional accomplishment by its graduates.

Career

Wall Street Analyst

Before joining Yahoo!, Decker worked as an equity research analyst covering the media and entertainment sector on Wall Street. She became a recognized figure in financial analysis, earning distinction for her coverage of companies in these industries. Decker was named to Institutional Investor magazine's list of top analysts, a ranking widely followed in the investment community. She was also recognized by CFO Magazine during this period of her career for her financial acumen. Her experience analyzing media companies from the investor's perspective gave her a detailed understanding of the economics of content and advertising businesses, knowledge that would prove directly relevant to her later role at one of the internet's largest media and advertising platforms.

Yahoo! Inc.

Chief Financial Officer

Decker joined Yahoo! Inc. and rose to the position of chief financial officer, where she became responsible for the company's financial strategy, reporting, and investor relations. In her capacity as CFO, she oversaw Yahoo!'s financial operations during a period of rapid growth in the online advertising market. Her background as a Wall Street analyst gave her a perspective that was valued on both sides of the investor relations equation — she understood what institutional investors and analysts wanted to see and could communicate the company's financial narrative accordingly.

Her performance as CFO drew significant attention. Forbes reported on Decker's rising prominence within Yahoo! in 2006, describing her role in the company's strategic direction as the internet industry underwent rapid evolution. During this time, the internet advertising business was undergoing fundamental shifts, with Google emerging as a dominant competitor and Yahoo! seeking to maintain its position as one of the web's most visited properties.

President of Yahoo!

In June 2007, Decker was appointed president of Yahoo! Inc., a role in which she oversaw the company's day-to-day operations. The appointment came as co-founder Jerry Yang assumed the role of chief executive officer. The leadership structure placed Decker in charge of operational execution while Yang focused on broader strategic and corporate matters. The arrangement reflected the board's confidence in Decker's operational capabilities and her deep familiarity with the company's financial and business operations.

Decker's tenure as president coincided with one of the most turbulent periods in Yahoo!'s history. In early 2008, Microsoft Corporation made an unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo! for approximately $44.6 billion, a proposal that generated extensive debate among Yahoo!'s board, management, shareholders, and the broader technology industry. The bid, and Yahoo!'s ultimate decision to reject it, became one of the most scrutinized corporate events of the late 2000s. Decker was part of the senior leadership team navigating these negotiations and the resulting fallout with shareholders who believed the company should have accepted Microsoft's offer.

The rejection of the Microsoft bid contributed to growing dissatisfaction among Yahoo!'s investors and intensified scrutiny of the company's strategic direction. In November 2008, Jerry Yang announced he would step down as CEO, a decision reported by MarketWatch and other financial news outlets. Decker's own departure from Yahoo! followed shortly thereafter in early 2009, as the company brought in new leadership under Carol Bartz. CNET reported on the leadership transition at Yahoo!, which marked the end of the Yang-Decker era at the company.

Despite the challenges that marked the end of her time at Yahoo!, Decker's tenure highlighted the complexity of leading a major internet company during a period of intense competitive pressure and shifting market dynamics. The questions Yahoo! faced during her presidency — about the value of its core business, its relationship with its Asian investments, and its position relative to Google — would continue to define the company's trajectory for years after her departure.

Post-Yahoo! Career

Return to Harvard Business School

Following her departure from Yahoo!, Decker returned to Harvard Business School in a teaching capacity. The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2009 that Decker had returned to the institution from which she had earned her MBA, taking on a role that allowed her to share her extensive experience in corporate finance and technology management with students. The move from the corporate world to academia, even temporarily, reflected a pattern seen among senior executives who step back from operational roles to engage in teaching and mentorship.

Co-Founding Raftr

In 2017, Decker co-founded Raftr, a social networking platform. The venture represented Decker's shift from large-company management to entrepreneurship, as she sought to build a new technology product from the ground up. Raftr was designed as a social networking tool aimed at creating more meaningful online community interactions. The platform reflected ongoing interest in the technology sector in developing alternatives to the dominant social media services, with a focus on more curated and intentional forms of digital communication.

Board Service

After leaving Yahoo!, Decker became active as a corporate board director, serving on the boards of several prominent companies and organizations. Her board service extended across multiple industries and included both public and private companies as well as nonprofit organizations.

Berkshire Hathaway

Decker served on the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by Warren Buffett. Her appointment to the Berkshire board placed her among a select group of directors overseeing one of the world's most valuable companies. BusinessWeek listed Decker among the board members of Berkshire Hathaway, reflecting her standing in the corporate governance community.

Automattic

Decker served on the board of Automattic, the privately held technology company behind WordPress.com, one of the world's most widely used content management and blogging platforms. Her role at Automattic connected her to the open-source technology community and the ongoing evolution of web publishing tools.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey, the online survey and data analytics company, announced that Decker had joined its board of directors. The appointment was noted for adding technology and financial expertise to the company's governance. A report on the appointment highlighted that the addition of Decker strengthened the representation of women on SurveyMonkey's board.

Vail Resorts

Decker served on the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the publicly traded operator of ski resorts and mountain recreation properties across North America. Her appointment was announced in a company press release.

Save the Children

Beyond corporate board service, Decker served on the board of Save the Children, one of the world's leading international nonprofit organizations focused on children's rights and welfare. Her involvement with the organization reflected an engagement with philanthropic and humanitarian causes alongside her corporate activities.

Public Commentary on Technology Industry

Decker remained an active voice in discussions about the technology industry after her departure from Yahoo!. In a 2018 interview with CNBC, she spoke about the erosion of trust in Silicon Valley, addressing the growing public and regulatory scrutiny of major technology companies regarding issues such as data privacy, content moderation, and the social impact of technology platforms. Decker noted that trust was "eroding" in the technology sector, a comment that reflected the broader climate of the period as companies like Facebook faced congressional hearings and public backlash over data handling practices.

Personal Life

Susan Decker is known to go by the names Sue Decker and Susan L. Decker in various professional contexts. She was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and later lived in areas connected to her professional activities, including the San Francisco Bay Area during her years at Yahoo!. Details about her family life, including marriage and children, are not extensively documented in publicly available sources and are therefore not included here. Following her departure from Yahoo! and her return to Harvard Business School, Decker maintained a presence in both technology and academic circles.

Recognition

Decker has received several forms of professional recognition over the course of her career. As a Wall Street analyst, she was named to Institutional Investor magazine's rankings of top equity research analysts, a distinction that recognized her expertise in covering the media and entertainment sectors. Her work as CFO of Yahoo! was noted by CFO Magazine and other publications that recognized financial leadership in the corporate world.

Harvard Business School honored Decker with an Alumni Achievement Award, one of the school's highest honors for graduates who have demonstrated outstanding professional accomplishment. The award placed her alongside other distinguished Harvard MBA alumni who had made significant contributions to business and society.

Her appointment to the board of Berkshire Hathaway represented a further mark of professional distinction, as the company's board membership is closely watched given the prominence of the conglomerate and its chairman, Warren Buffett. Forbes and The New York Times were among the major publications that profiled Decker during her time at Yahoo!, reflecting her visibility as a senior executive in the technology industry.

Legacy

Susan Decker's career spans several of the defining trends in American business over the past three decades: the rise of Wall Street equity research as a profession, the growth and maturation of the internet industry, the increasing prominence of women in senior corporate leadership, and the evolution of corporate governance practices. Her ascent from equity analyst to president of one of the internet's most prominent companies illustrated the path that financial expertise could provide into operational leadership roles in the technology sector.

Her tenure at Yahoo! coincided with a pivotal moment in the company's history, as it grappled with the challenge of competing against Google and navigating the strategic question of whether to accept Microsoft's acquisition offer. While the outcome of that period was not favorable for Yahoo! — the company's market value declined significantly in subsequent years before its eventual sale to Verizon in 2017 — Decker's experience at the helm provided a case study in the complexities of corporate strategy during times of industry disruption.

After Yahoo!, Decker's board service at companies ranging from Berkshire Hathaway to Automattic to SurveyMonkey demonstrated the breadth of her business knowledge and her continued engagement with both established and emerging technology enterprises. Her involvement with Save the Children added a philanthropic dimension to her post-Yahoo! activities.

Decker's public commentary on trust in Silicon Valley, delivered at a time when the technology industry was facing unprecedented scrutiny over data privacy and social impact, reflected her willingness to engage critically with the industry in which she had built her career. Her co-founding of Raftr in 2017 showed a continued entrepreneurial drive and interest in the evolution of social networking and online community platforms.