Marissa Mayer, a leading consumer internet executive and one of Google Inc’s (GOOG) earliest employees, will become Yahoo’s (YHOO) new CEO from Tuesday, a surprise pick for the company’s fourth chief executive in less than a year.

Mayer, who joined Google in 1997 as its 20th employee and first female engineer, edged out front-runner and acting CEO Ross Levinsohn for the top spot at the struggling former Internet powerhouse, which continues to loose ground in the search and content business.

Mayer, 37, is a technologist that has managed some of Google Inc.’s most popular products. She is credited for envisioning Google’s famously white search home page, a major selling point for Web surfers, and the way users interacted with Gmail, Google News and Google Images.

David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo, said in a prepared statement: “Marissa is a well-known, visionary leader in user experience and product design and one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting strategists in technology development. I look forward to working with her to enhance Yahoo’s product offerings for our over 700 million unique monthly visitors.”

“The Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Marissa’s unparalleled track record in technology, design, and product execution makes her the right leader for Yahoo! at this time of enormous opportunity,” said Fred Amoroso, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mayer received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems and her M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, specializing in artificial intelligence for both degrees. She holds several patents in artificial intelligence and interface design.

CLIQBOY: Before you go see girls doing programming in naija..he means say water dom pass garri be dat..na only chatting dem sabi

gimbus: I am a Naija lady who is currently a software developer/systems designer who started in Naija and later relocated. I strongly believe that all Naija ladies have the potential to be anything they want to be and stereotypical comments like yours discourages women from pursuing tech careers.

gimbus:

I am a Naija lady who is currently a software developer/systems designer who started in Naija and later relocated. I strongly believe that all Naija ladies have the potential to be anything they want to be and stereotypical comments like yours discourages women from pursuing tech careers.

obo_man: hey Nigerian Men, this shouldn't be an avenue to abuse Nigerian Women but to encourage them.



If Nigerian men start getting creative just like the American owners who founded Yahoo, maybe our sisters, mums, and daughters will also be CEOs of our companies....



[s]In any society, the way women in that society are is a reflection of their men. [/s]


So b4 I call my Nigerian woman a money chaser, maybe I should be less greedy as a Nigerian Man in the first place.

Seun:
Nigerian women have the potential to be good coders. No one disputes that. If they can be bothered to try, they can be good at it. But they are not interested, because sitting in front of a PC all day, trying to solve extremely hard problems that most people can't understand or appreciate, just doesn't seem attractive to most women, compared to the other options available to them. There are exceptions. People like you. I don't think it's such a bad thing to acknowledge the fact that women like you are very rare.

CLIQBOY: Before you go see girls doing programming in naija..he means say water dom pass garri be dat..na only chatting dem sabi