Ex-Yahoo employee, now Silicon Valley Biz Journal editor, sues Yahoo CEO

Scott Ard, the editor in chief of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, has filed a lawsuit against Yahoo CEO Melissa Mayer, accusing her of leading a company to purge the company of male employees, reports Ethan Baron of The Mercury News.

Baron writes, “Ard, who worked for Yahoo for 3 ½ years until January 2015, is now editor-in-chief of the Silicon Valley Business Journal. His lawsuit also claims that Yahoo illegally fired large numbers of workers ousted under a performance-rating system imposed by Mayer. That allegation was not tied to gender.

“Yahoo spokeswoman Carolyn Clark said Yahoo couldn’t comment on pending litigation, but she defended the company’s performance-review process, which she said was guided by ‘fairness.’

“‘Our performance-review process was developed to allow employees at all levels of the company to receive meaningful, regular and actionable feedback from others,’ Clark said. ‘We believe this process allows our team to develop and do their best work. Our performance-review process also allows for high performers to engage in increasingly larger opportunities at our company, as well as for low performers to be transitioned out.’

“In addition to Mayer, two other female executives — Kathy Savitt, former chief marketing officer, and Megan Liberman, editor-in-chief of Yahoo News, identified in the lawsuit as Yahoo’s vice president of news at the time — are accused in the lawsuit of discriminating on the basis of gender.”

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