Meet the New Yahoo! Boss

Ross Levinsohn, the fifth CEO in four years, has a mixed record

"I've kept my head down for most of my career. When it's popped up occasionally, you get whacked." — Ross LevinsohnPhotograph by Michael Buckner/Getty Images

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By Ira Boudway and Peter Burrows

May 18, 2012 at 12:35 AM UTC

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This article is part of the May 21, 2012 issue of businessweek.

When Yahoo! was searching for a new chief executive officer in October after firing Carol Bartz, the company’s head of global media, Ross Levinsohn, went on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. His interviewer asked if he was interested in the job. “I’ve kept my head down for most of my career,” he responded. “When it’s popped up occasionally, you get whacked.”

Levinsohn’s head just popped up again. On May 13, Yahoo named him interim CEO following the resignation of Scott Thompson, whose résumé, the company admits, included a computer science degree he never earned. Levinsohn becomes Yahoo’s fifth CEO in four years and, like all the others, he’ll find no easy answer to the question of Yahoo’s future. The company is bleeding market share in its core business—display ads—and growth has stagnated at marquee properties like Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Finance.