Another Yahoo Exec Departs
If Lloyd Braun, former Yahoo exec in charge of juicing entertainment who left under a cloud could poach a few execs from the troubled Internet giant, so can former sales head Wenda Harris Millard, who also left Yahoo earlier this year after a rocky goodbye with management.
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo's management layer has been thinning all year. In June, the company merged its display and search ad-sales units and sales chief Wenda Harris Millard exited to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia after what was described as a rocky parting with leadership. Weeks ago, Valleywag reported that president Sue Decker had shaken up Yahoo's marketing organization in the wake of continued exits.
First-order effects
- Yahoo loses another senior operator while Decker's marketing shake-up is still fresh, deepening the bench-strength question inside the company.
- Millard, now at MSLO, is unconfirmed-rumored to be recruiting several former Yahoo colleagues, giving her new employer direct access to trained Yahoo ad-sales and media talent.
Second-order effects
- Yahoo's rivals in media and advertising gain a low-cost hiring pool: executives who already know its advertiser relationships and internal politics, following the path Lloyd Braun set when he left under a cloud and reportedly began pulling people out.
- Every departure raises the perceived risk of staying for those who remain, forcing Yahoo management to spend retention capital on exactly the roles the reorgs just destabilized.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Yahoo's problem stops being individual resignations and becomes structural: an alumni network that funnels experienced internet-media operators to competitors, turning each exit wave into a self-reinforcing talent drain.
The trend: Yahoo's 2007 executive churn is shifting from isolated departures to an alumni diaspora, where former chiefs like Millard and Braun become active recruiters of the company's own bench.