

The computer scientist CEO - wheels
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-computer-scientist-ceo.html

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chubot
I think there have been a lot of other CEOs who are highly technical. CS
wasn't a common major when 50 year olds were going to college (i.e. a common
age for present day CEOs), but a fair number have technical degrees.

Gil Amelio, who Steve Jobs displaced when he came back to Apple, was
apparently highly technical (physics, where a lot of early programmers came
from).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Amelio>

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dvse
As pointed out in the comments on blogspot, CS is hardly the degree with
biggest focus on optimization. Try operations research, systems & control,
economics or even the MBA!

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ilamont
_The most common degree of CEOs hired into Fortune 500 companies is an MBA.
Marissa appears to be the first computer scientist._

There are more. Eric Schmidt springs to mind. When hired into Google, he had a
PhD in electrical engineering.

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kkelly
It's just a weird sentence in general, an MBA isn't a degree.

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mikeryan
_an MBA isn't a degree._

Its a Master's Degree in Business Administration.

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kloncks
I get a lot of the messages behind this article, but it just throws around a
lot of claims without any citations or proof whatsoever. Just can't take this
seriously.

"she is the first computer scientist (MSCS or higher) hired in as CEO to a
Fortune 500 company"

"The most common degree of CEOs hired into Fortune 500 companies is an MBA."

"She is not going to be the mad visionary of Steve Jobs, yelling at everyone
while _single-handedly designing breakthrough products_."

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yuhong
On the other hand, I do wish it was more common.

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jvandenbroeck
What a BS, instead of putting people in boxes because of their sex or race,
let's put them in a box because of their Masters degree.. I bet that if you
take 5 CS grads you get 5 different management styles. (for posts like this I
need a downvote button..)

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dohko
I think the author's view on how Computer Scientists is a bit reductive. Not
everything is an "optimization problem". While I believe it is true that a
good CS major will seek to reduce inneficiencies throughout the company, there
is also a lot to be said about "Creative Vision" and actually building
innovative things. I think if you are seeking to grow, you probably need this
latter quality more than cutting down costs and improving profits type of
CEOs. Therefore Marissa Mayer makes a lot of sense. Furthermore I would be
seriously interested in seeing how many of the MBA CEOs of fortune 500 tech
companies have undergrad tech degrees.

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bariswheel
Eric Schmidt. < Computer Science, UC Berkeley.

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jacques_chester
Marissa Mayer is a _single data point_.

