Former Yahoo Boss Scott Thompson Now CEO Of ShopRunner

Two months after his uneasy exit from Yahoo, Scott Thompson has been offered a job as the CEO of the recently launched US shopping platform ShopRunner.

Thompson was forced to resign from Yahoo in May, after it emerged that he falsely claimed to have a computer science degree in his resume. He was replaced by ex-Google executive Marissa Mayer, who became the company’s eighth CEO in 17 years.

Soap opera

Thompson worked for PayPal for seven years, including four years as its president, prior to being offered the hot seat at Yahoo. Under his leadership, PayPal more than doubled its user base, from 50 million to 104 million active users across 190 countries.

Before him, Yahoo was temporarily headed by the CFO Tim Morse, after the board of directors fired the previous CEO, Carol Bartz, who in turn replaced company co-founder Jerry Yang in 2009 (before Yang took the reins, Yahoo was led by Tim Koogle and then Jerry Semel, for six years each).

In March, after Thompson spent just four months on the job, it emerged that his bio and regulatory filings included a non-existent computer science degree from Stone Hill College in Boston, which didn’t even teach the subject at the time. The qualification had apparently been present on documentation since Thompson’s time at eBay.

After admitting his mistake, Thompson issued an apology to Yahoo employees, but that didn’t placate the executive board. In May, he was fired, with Executive VP Ross Levinsohn temporarily taking over the company.

Last week, after long and thorough search Yahoo named Google engineer and executive Marissa Mayer as its current CEO. Mayer was one of the first 20 employees hired by Google, and its first female software developer. According to reports, she will earn around £45 million in five years, if she manages to stay with the company for that long.

Thompson will succeed ShopRunner’s current CEO and co-founder Mike Golden, who will continue working at the company as its president.

ShopRunner is a website that provides free two-day delivery from popular shopping sites combined with exclusive offers, in exchange for monthly membership fees. Very soon, it will launch a product called PayRunner, which promises a “two-click checkout experience” and sounds suspiciously similar to some of the work Thompson did at PayPal.

“Joining ShopRunner is a tremendous opportunity to build on the strong foundation that the company has already established,” said Thompson. “While PayPal and ShopRunner are fundamentally different businesses, there are similarities in each of their success. Both companies are focused on building the broadest network of satisfied merchants by providing the value that creates a large and loyal customer community, creating a virtuous circle.”

“Scott and Michael Rubin [a majority shareholder] had worked together for a number of years, and Michael and I took him through the idea of ShopRunner early on,” commented Mike Golden.

“He had an immediate understanding of the potential impact of ShopRunner for consumers and retailers. During his tenure as PayPal’s President, Scott joined the ShopRunner board of directors and we got to see firsthand how much value Scott could add to our business. Michael and I both felt he would be the perfect long-term CEO,” he added.

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