It’s only five months since ex PayPal President Scott Thompson jumped ship to take up a new position as CEO of Yahoo! Now he’s back in the news for allegedly padding his CV with a degree in computer science which he never actually had.
It’s not the end of the world, he does hold a degree business administration with a major in accounting which lets face it is probably better qualification for a CEO then a degree in computer science. Yahoo! say that “there was an inadvertent error that stated Mr. Thompson also holds a degree in computer science”, but it’s given a Yahoo! investor cause to call for him to be sacked.
Of course it’s no accident that this particular investor spotted the discrepancy between actual and claimed qualifications. They are hoping shareholders will elect themselves to the Yahoo! board of directors so any shake up could work in their favour.
4 Responses
He is not the first person to have padded out their CV. But when it happens it is usually to claim a qualification higher than those that they genuinely hold. So they claim a degree rather than just the “A” Levels or City and Guilds or whatever that tghe actually hold.
I would have thought that it is unusual for somebody why has a genuine degree to claim another fictional degree. After all Job Adverts usually require educated to degree level not specifying how many degrees. The Job Adverts may specify number of “A” Levels and the like but not degrees.
There is another point. What possible advantage does the fictional degree give him. My guess is none.
So I am sympathetic to the claim that it is an “inadverdent Error”.
Loeb will probably get his wish and Thompson will be removed from his position as CEO and Chairman of the Board. This will not be because he does not have a degree in Computer Science, but rather because he exaggerated his prowess about his knowledge of computer science. Shame, because to be the chairman of Yahoo, one really doesn’t need that much in the way of a knowledge of Computer Science.
https://connectingthecircles.blogspot.com/2012/05/nothing-really-matters-anyone-can-see.html
Does this story show that Paypal doesn’t research their senior people very well before appointing them?