5 ms·

Funny you should mention her. I'm 100% sure that it can't be coincidence that the only "really bad CEOs" I keep hearing about on social media are Pao, Meyers an

Funny you should mention her. I'm 100% sure that it can't be coincidence that the only "really bad CEOs" I keep hearing about on social media are Pao, Meyers and Elizabeth Holmes. But people really don't react kindly to accusations of sexism without proof. I wonder how unlikely it is that the 90% of male CEOs in high tech are all exemplary.

protomyth 10y ago
You must be reading different social media then me since there are plenty examples of bad male CEOs. Isn't there a Twitter article on the main page? HP is a special case as they have had a run of awful CEOs (the SAP guy being one of the worst) and most damaging a criminal board. I think the jury is still out on Meyers. Holmes is basically a criminal. Not one has approached SCO or Enron bad. There are plenty of sucky male CEOs out there. [edit: seems the male Backpack CEO made the front page doing something far worse]
- the-dude 10y ago
  HP, do you mean Apotheker? Fair enough. But you do not get to mention HP without Carly Fiorina.
  - protomyth 10y ago
    I don't think she would be any less controversial if she were a man.
NhanH 10y ago
In recent times (5 years-ish), those three are about the most spectacular/ popular failures/ scandals (more of a scandal and less of failure in the case of Pao and Meyers) happened. Seeing that reddit is easily like the 2nd or 3rd most popular "social media" (with a loose definition of the term), is it a surprised an issue involving it would be popular on social media? And if any white male want to try starting a 10B fraudulent company, I have faith that HN will be dragging your name all over the place bashing you as well. That said, when I read "really bad CEOs on social media" and tried to think of an example.... "Steve Balmer" comes to mind. I took the liberty of searching for just "steve balmer" on the HN's search. First article reads "Why Balmer failed", and this is a couple of link down: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263205 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263205 . Microsoft did NOT fail during his tenure as a CEO, and that is how he's judged. You might consider if your sampling is having a bias.
zajd 10y ago
I dunno Jack Dorsey, the guy from Just Mayo, Blue Apron, there have been some pretty damning exposes on male CEOs in the tech industry just in the past few weeks. Hell, plenty of valid criticism is made of people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Granted, I'm not on twitter or facebook, but from what I understand social media is a hellscape and should be avoided at all costs.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
scythe 10y ago
Pao doesn't deserve that label at all -- later info showed she probably fought for free speech on reddit as much as anyone -- but that doesn't come from the world's bias, merely reddit's. It was after all Alexis Ohanian who made the decision[1] that got Ellen Pao fired. Holmes, on the other hand, isn't a bad CEO, she's a scam artist. So if those are the "bad CEOs" you've been hearing about, you've been hearing from some pretty misinformed people. Arguably the founders of Sun were pretty bad businessmen (but excellent engineers). Tim Cook's reign at Apple has been questionable. Eric Schmidt is remembered more for being some sort of Machiavellian New World Order type who is way too friendly with the State department. Steve Ballmer is sort of like Meyer in that he was blamed for not saving a company whose market was simply getting smaller. It's possible that you don't hear about bad male CEOs as much because male CEOs aren't notable simply for being CEOs. I think that Meyer missed an opportunity to beat Google at privacy by taking it seriously. Yahoo was excellently situated for that. Once they're part of Verizon, though, it's too late. On the other hand, Ellen Pao's primary mistake was being both female and famous on reddit. [1] - http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/details-emerge-about-victoria-taylors-dismissal-at-reddit/?_r=0 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/details-emerge-abou...
Fricken 10y ago
Holmes is a bad CEO? She built a 9 billion dollar company using only smoke and mirrors. That just doesn't happen everyday. Imagine how successful Theranos would be if they actually had a product.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
Hardly a day goes by without someone complaining what an asshole Travis Kalanick is. Please don't forget basic facts while pursuing your SJW agenda.
dredmorbius 10y ago
You could add Carly Fiorina to that list, to continue the theme. Or Charles H. Keating, Jr. (Lincoln Savings & Loan). Or Albert J. "Chainsaw" Dunlap (Sunbeam). Or Bernard Ebbers (Worldcom). Or Kenneth Lay (Enron). Or Bernie Matoff (self). Or Angelo R. Mozilo (Countrwide Financial). Or Richard Belluzzo (SGI). Or Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers). Or Maurice R. Greenberg (AIG). I don't even remember the executives, but from a Quora listing of SV failures: PayByTouch (John Rogers, convicted felon), SpotRunner (Nick Grouf and David Waxman), Homejoy (Adora & Aaron Cheung), Joost (Mike Volpi), DashMobile (Jamyn Edis), Cuil (hey, one I actually remember: Tom Costello), SearchMe (Randy Adams), Friendster (Ganesh Kumar Bangah), Digg (Jay Adelson & Kevin Rose), Reatrix (Robert Hoffer), and Color Labs (Bill Nguyen). All but one were run by men. Cumulatively they lost over $1 billion in funding capital with nothing to show for. Or you could look at Yahoo itself: Ross Levinsohn, Scott Thompson, Tim Morse, Carol "Fuck You" Bartz, Jerry Yang, and Terry Semel have all guided, spurred-on, or frantically tried to halt its descent, to little effect. Only Bartz is female. I'm quite unimpressed by Mayer given news of the past few weeks. I never thought she had much of a chance of salvaging Yahoo, and thought the company was walking dead, with my estimate a year or two back that it likely had about three years to live. The Verizon deal looked like a least-bad exit, and I was willing to give credit for that at the time. Rolling forward, I'd be willing to argue that Mayer has all but scuppered one of the few lifeboats she might have scampered into through mismanagement. But that's on her. And there's plenty other failure to go around. Truth is: business, startups, and infotech are tough gigs. https://www.quora.com/What-has-been-the-biggest-startup-failure-in-Silicon-Valley-in-the-past-5-years https://www.quora.com/What-has-been-the-biggest-startup-fail...
snovv_crash 10y ago
Martin Shkreli, Parker Conrad, Brendan Eich, Jack Dorsey, Steve Ballmer. Even though Amazon is doing well people hate on Jeff Bezos a lot.
- coredog64 10y ago
  Was Bendan Eich really a bad CEO, or is he just extremely unpopular for his donation to a political cause?
  - internaut 10y ago
    The decision to oust Eich is the reason why I would never knowingly hire people who practiced social justice activism. There is evidence all over Silicon Valley, including this thread, that they just cannot keep their politics and work separated. Indeed they believe it is their job to mix the two. It would be like hiring a KKK member in HR. Toxic results would be a foregone conclusion. It is the paradox of tolerance all over again. Social justice actvists will never hire rightists. KKK members are never going to hire blacks. And yes this is a valid comparison because social justice groups such as Black Lives Matter do have people in them advocating violence, being involved in riots and even murder with the sniper in Dallas being one example. Eich was a moderate kind of rightist so there is no chance somebody like me would be allowed to exist. I would have no problem hiring people who disagree with me on every political subject. The problem starts when you begin using your influence to deliberately select members of your 'tribe' to be appointed to positions. That is the trademark 'feature' that should cause you to deselect them, it is no contradiction to discriminate against negative discrimination. Look at Ycombinator. It has many well known characters who clearly disagree in politics but it does not turn into a problem for their working relationship. That is the kind of pluralism we should want to have.
    - gspetr 10y ago
      Speaking of Ycombinator, are you aware of it's CEO's position? http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/20/technology/sam-altman-trump/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/20/technology/sam-altman-trump/...

protomyth 10y ago

You must be reading different social media then me since there are plenty examples of bad male CEOs. Isn't there a Twitter article on the main page? HP is a special case as they have had a run of awful CEOs (the SAP guy being one of the worst) and most damaging a criminal board. I think the jury is still out on Meyers. Holmes is basically a criminal. Not one has approached SCO or Enron bad. There are plenty of sucky male CEOs out there. [edit: seems the male Backpack CEO made the front page doing something far worse]

the-dude 10y ago
HP, do you mean Apotheker? Fair enough. But you do not get to mention HP without Carly Fiorina.
- protomyth 10y ago
  I don't think she would be any less controversial if she were a man.

NhanH 10y ago

In recent times (5 years-ish), those three are about the most spectacular/ popular failures/ scandals (more of a scandal and less of failure in the case of Pao and Meyers) happened. Seeing that reddit is easily like the 2nd or 3rd most popular "social media" (with a loose definition of the term), is it a surprised an issue involving it would be popular on social media? And if any white male want to try starting a 10B fraudulent company, I have faith that HN will be dragging your name all over the place bashing you as well. That said, when I read "really bad CEOs on social media" and tried to think of an example.... "Steve Balmer" comes to mind. I took the liberty of searching for just "steve balmer" on the HN's search. First article reads "Why Balmer failed", and this is a couple of link down: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263205 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6263205 . Microsoft did NOT fail during his tenure as a CEO, and that is how he's judged. You might consider if your sampling is having a bias.

zajd 10y ago

I dunno Jack Dorsey, the guy from Just Mayo, Blue Apron, there have been some pretty damning exposes on male CEOs in the tech industry just in the past few weeks. Hell, plenty of valid criticism is made of people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Granted, I'm not on twitter or facebook, but from what I understand social media is a hellscape and should be avoided at all costs.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

scythe 10y ago

Pao doesn't deserve that label at all -- later info showed she probably fought for free speech on reddit as much as anyone -- but that doesn't come from the world's bias, merely reddit's. It was after all Alexis Ohanian who made the decision[1] that got Ellen Pao fired. Holmes, on the other hand, isn't a bad CEO, she's a scam artist. So if those are the "bad CEOs" you've been hearing about, you've been hearing from some pretty misinformed people. Arguably the founders of Sun were pretty bad businessmen (but excellent engineers). Tim Cook's reign at Apple has been questionable. Eric Schmidt is remembered more for being some sort of Machiavellian New World Order type who is way too friendly with the State department. Steve Ballmer is sort of like Meyer in that he was blamed for not saving a company whose market was simply getting smaller. It's possible that you don't hear about bad male CEOs as much because male CEOs aren't notable simply for being CEOs. I think that Meyer missed an opportunity to beat Google at privacy by taking it seriously. Yahoo was excellently situated for that. Once they're part of Verizon, though, it's too late. On the other hand, Ellen Pao's primary mistake was being both female and famous on reddit. [1] - http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/details-emerge-about-victoria-taylors-dismissal-at-reddit/?_r=0 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/details-emerge-abou...

Fricken 10y ago

Holmes is a bad CEO? She built a 9 billion dollar company using only smoke and mirrors. That just doesn't happen everyday. Imagine how successful Theranos would be if they actually had a product.

maverick_iceman 10y ago

Hardly a day goes by without someone complaining what an asshole Travis Kalanick is. Please don't forget basic facts while pursuing your SJW agenda.

dredmorbius 10y ago

You could add Carly Fiorina to that list, to continue the theme. Or Charles H. Keating, Jr. (Lincoln Savings & Loan). Or Albert J. "Chainsaw" Dunlap (Sunbeam). Or Bernard Ebbers (Worldcom). Or Kenneth Lay (Enron). Or Bernie Matoff (self). Or Angelo R. Mozilo (Countrwide Financial). Or Richard Belluzzo (SGI). Or Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers). Or Maurice R. Greenberg (AIG). I don't even remember the executives, but from a Quora listing of SV failures: PayByTouch (John Rogers, convicted felon), SpotRunner (Nick Grouf and David Waxman), Homejoy (Adora & Aaron Cheung), Joost (Mike Volpi), DashMobile (Jamyn Edis), Cuil (hey, one I actually remember: Tom Costello), SearchMe (Randy Adams), Friendster (Ganesh Kumar Bangah), Digg (Jay Adelson & Kevin Rose), Reatrix (Robert Hoffer), and Color Labs (Bill Nguyen). All but one were run by men. Cumulatively they lost over $1 billion in funding capital with nothing to show for. Or you could look at Yahoo itself: Ross Levinsohn, Scott Thompson, Tim Morse, Carol "Fuck You" Bartz, Jerry Yang, and Terry Semel have all guided, spurred-on, or frantically tried to halt its descent, to little effect. Only Bartz is female. I'm quite unimpressed by Mayer given news of the past few weeks. I never thought she had much of a chance of salvaging Yahoo, and thought the company was walking dead, with my estimate a year or two back that it likely had about three years to live. The Verizon deal looked like a least-bad exit, and I was willing to give credit for that at the time. Rolling forward, I'd be willing to argue that Mayer has all but scuppered one of the few lifeboats she might have scampered into through mismanagement. But that's on her. And there's plenty other failure to go around. Truth is: business, startups, and infotech are tough gigs. https://www.quora.com/What-has-been-the-biggest-startup-failure-in-Silicon-Valley-in-the-past-5-years https://www.quora.com/What-has-been-the-biggest-startup-fail...

snovv_crash 10y ago

Martin Shkreli, Parker Conrad, Brendan Eich, Jack Dorsey, Steve Ballmer. Even though Amazon is doing well people hate on Jeff Bezos a lot.

coredog64 10y ago
Was Bendan Eich really a bad CEO, or is he just extremely unpopular for his donation to a political cause?
- internaut 10y ago
  The decision to oust Eich is the reason why I would never knowingly hire people who practiced social justice activism. There is evidence all over Silicon Valley, including this thread, that they just cannot keep their politics and work separated. Indeed they believe it is their job to mix the two. It would be like hiring a KKK member in HR. Toxic results would be a foregone conclusion. It is the paradox of tolerance all over again. Social justice actvists will never hire rightists. KKK members are never going to hire blacks. And yes this is a valid comparison because social justice groups such as Black Lives Matter do have people in them advocating violence, being involved in riots and even murder with the sniper in Dallas being one example. Eich was a moderate kind of rightist so there is no chance somebody like me would be allowed to exist. I would have no problem hiring people who disagree with me on every political subject. The problem starts when you begin using your influence to deliberately select members of your 'tribe' to be appointed to positions. That is the trademark 'feature' that should cause you to deselect them, it is no contradiction to discriminate against negative discrimination. Look at Ycombinator. It has many well known characters who clearly disagree in politics but it does not turn into a problem for their working relationship. That is the kind of pluralism we should want to have.
  - gspetr 10y ago
    Speaking of Ycombinator, are you aware of it's CEO's position? http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/20/technology/sam-altman-trump/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/20/technology/sam-altman-trump/...