CEO Scott Thompson Leaves Yahoo, Ross Levinsohn is new Chief

UPDATE : ex-Yahoo chief told board he has thyroid cancer.

After having gone through five Chief Executive Officers in the past 18 years, Yahoo has appointed, yet again, a new CEO – albeit on an interim basis – following the resignation of Scott Thompson. Yahoo EVP Ross Levisohn replaces Thompson after only about four months of CEO duties, after the latter battled with controversies on his spurious bachelor’s degree.

The college degree that never was

A scandal surrounding facts on his educational background has hounded former CEO Scott Thompson for some time now, initiated by Yahoo shareholder Daniel Loeb. Thompson’s CV shows he had completed a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Computer Science from Stonehill College, but a slight incongruity was discovered by Loeb: it was only on the fourth year following Thompson’s graduation from Stonehill that the college began awarding computer science degrees.

What did Yahoo say?

Yahoo, in an effort to mitigate the worsening controversy, admitted the errors on Thompson’s resume, referring to them as “inadvertent”. For his part, Thompson also expressed his apologies through a couple of employee meetings the previous week, explaining how the inaccuracy may have started with a headhunting company who helped him secure a position at eBay a few years back. But Heidrick and Struggles – the company Thompson was finger pointing to – stood up against the accusation. They claim Thompson sent them his resume and information on his purported CS degree himself.

Scott Thompson’s appointment as CEO at Yahoo came in January after working as an executive for Paypal at eBay, which totals his short stint as Yahoo CEO to only about four months. He actually holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a major in accounting.

Ross Levinsohn, who replaces Thompson as CEO, also sits as Yahoo EVP and head of global media. In a released statement the former Fox Interactive Media executive went on to say that he is “honored to lead this great company as interim Chief Executive Officer” and that he “accepts the responsibility with enthusiasm and confidence.”

Levinsohn is a graduate of The American University with a degree in Communications.

image: wikipedia