Will Cisco Systems Keep Jerry Yang On Its Board of Directors?

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Good news at Yahoo! (YHOO-NASDAQ)…Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! is returning to take the CEO helm.  But this does bring up an interesting issue.  Cisco Systems (CSCO-NASDAQ) has Jerry Yang on its own Board of Directors and it is unknown if Cisco would want him on the board if he is going to stay on the board or if they would want him off.  In theory, this ‘could’ give Yang too much of an inside track on the day to day operations.  In truth, they probably want to keep him and it really probably boils down to if Yang thinks keeping his obligations to a board of directors with the likes of a Cisco is too much of a distraction for him in his new CEO role.

The board of directors does have other high-flyers and does have other current CEO’s.  So they probably wouldn’t say "you need to leave."  Yang was still on the board of Yahoo! but taking over as CEO is a new issue to consider. Here are some of the the other top dogs on the board of Cisco that serve actively at other public companies:

Carol Bartz, Executive Chairman, Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK-NASDAQ);
Brian L. Halla; Chairman & CEO, National Semiconductor Corp. (NSM-NYSE);
Richard Kovacevich; Chairman & CEO, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC-NYSE);
Roderick C. McGeary, Chairman of the Board, BearingPoint, Inc. (BE-NYSE)

Jon C. Ogg
June 18, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.