Can Jeff Weiner Realize LinkedIn’s Full Potential?

The morning of May 19, Jeff Weiner became the face of technology’s new era of bubbly optimism. After ringing the bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the chief executive officer of LinkedIn watched as shares of his company soared above $120, nearly triple the price set by bankers the night before. That valued LinkedIn at more than $9 billion, and Weiner quickly became a target for critics doubting the company was worth its sky-high valuation. This “is like a movie I’ve seen before,” said Citigroup Chairman Richard D. Parsons, who once led AOL Time Warner, in a CNBC interview.

It’s tough to find a tech CEO with more to prove than Weiner. He took the top job at LinkedIn in 2009, after seven years at Yahoo! struggling—and ultimately failing—to keep the Web portal competitive with Google in search. In the past two years he’s quadrupled Linked-In’s headcount to 1,500 employees, turned the world’s largest database of online résumés into a profitable service for job recruiters, and amassed a personal wealth of more than $160 million.