Blake Jorgensen took the reins just as a corporate reorg was breaking loose in Sunnyvale.

A photo of him at work with the ‘morning coffee brigade’ is on display at Yahoo’s official blog. I learned from the photo he fits the Scott ‘Dilbert’ Adams definition of most executives: tall guy with nice hair.

In a Q&A that defines the phrase, “softball interview,” (something Katie Couric watchers will understand instinctively), we find the new guy had to learn some limits:

(Jorgensen) Despite the fact that we’re dealing with serious issues, we need to maintain a style in which people have fun and enjoy working with each other.

Q: Any examples you can share of that?

(Jorgensen) I probably shouldn’t say. We’ve made fun of certain members outside of the Yahoo! community and I’ve been chastised over what I can and can’t say about our competitors. No pranks yet, other than relatively sophomoric ones. But hopefully they’re coming.

Boo hiss, that’s no fun. Yahoo needs someone to moon Google, show a little fire in the belly. Not everyone can be Marc Benioff, and maybe the CFO isn’t the guy you want offering to kick the back-ends of the competition, but it’s not like a cozy billionaire like Jerry Yang is going to do so.

Posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 1:02 pm. Permalink