Jeff Weiner

CEO of LinkedIn

• Born: 1971
• Place of Birth: place unknown

Primary Company/Organization: LinkedIn

Introduction

Internet executive Jeff Weiner began his career at Warner Bros., where he was employed in a variety of roles from 1994 through 2000, helping expand the company's Internet presence. He oversaw the development of Warner Bros. Online in 1996 and served as the new division's vice president. He next cofounded Windsor Digital and was an executive in residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners before joining Yahoo! in 2001. His executive experience at Yahoo! included senior vice president of corporate development, senior vice president of search and marketplace, and executive vice president of its Network Division. Weiner left Yahoo! in 2008 to become acting president of the leading global online professional networking company LinkedIn. He took the role of LinkedIn's chief executive officer (CEO) in 2009, helping the company expand its global presence. He is recognized for his skills in management, corporate and product development, and business operations as well as his creativity, marking him as one of the prototypical of Silicon Valley start-up executives.

Early Life

Jeff Weiner was born in the United States in 1971. He is reluctant to provide details of his personal life, and there is little information regarding his childhood. He does note a lifelong interest in technology. He graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1992. He then began his professional career as a strategic planning analyst for Braxton Associates, a division of Deloitte and Touche dedicated to strategic management consulting. His duties included scenario planning and shareholder value analysis.

Weiner was employed in several capacities with the entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. from 1994 through 2000, starting in the role of senior analyst. His accomplishments centered on the growth of the company's Internet presence, building his experience in what would become his career field. From 1994 to 1996, he worked on interactive services for the Corporate Strategic Planning and Development Division.

Beginning in 1996, Weiner helped develop the initial business plan and oversaw the implementation of Warner Bros. Online, where he was promoted from manager to director to vice president of the Planning, Development, and Administration Division. He also helped launch both ACMEcity and the website Entertaindom.com in his capacity at Warner Bros. Online, serving as the latter's senior vice president and chief operating officer.

Weiner resigned from Warner Bros. in 2000 after its parent company, Time Warner, entered into a renowned merger with Internet service provider America Online (AOL) to form AOL Time Warner. He became a founding partner of Windsor Digital that year and was the new company's managing director until 2001. The company, cofounded by Yahoo! Chairman Terry Semel, is a private equity digital and media investment firm. Weiner left Windsor Digital in 2001 to join Yahoo, Inc, one of the leading Internet service providers.

Life's Work

Weiner served in a variety of capacities at Yahoo! from 2001 through 2008, putting into practice the leadership skills and Internet business experience he had gained at Warner Bros. His most significant positions were senior vice president of corporate development, senior vice president of search and marketplace, and executive vice president of its Network Division. His chief goal was the improvement of the company's Internet search capabilities and options.

Weiner's responsibilities at Yahoo! included management, strategic business development, and the oversight of mergers and acquisitions, such as Yahoo!'s purchase of software manufacturer Inktomi. Areas for which he was responsible included the company's commerce and listings business and its consumer web products, such as the Yahoo! search engine and Yahoo! Mail. One of the company's leading problems during Weiner's tenure and since has been competition from other Internet service providers, notably Google.

Weiner resigned from Yahoo! in 2008, taking a break of several months from the corporate world to help raise his newborn child before resuming his career. He then joined Accel Partners and Greylock Partners as an executive in residence from 2008 through 2009. His advisory duties with both firms involved the evaluation of and recommendations for both companies' current and potential investments in consumer technology firms.

Weiner took the next key step in his career when he joined leading online professional networking company LinkedIn as interim president in 2008. After a trial period in the interim role, he rose to the position of CEO the following year. He also sits on the company's board of directors. Former PayPal executive Reid Hoffman had founded LinkedIn in December of 2002 alongside a team of former PayPal and SocialNet.com employees. The company was funded through a combination of venture capital investments and Hoffman's portion of the proceeds from the sale of PayPal.

The LinkedIn site was launched on May 5, 2003, with founder Hoffman as its first CEO. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. It also maintains corporate offices in more than thirty worldwide locations, including a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, opened in 2010. LinkedIn's initial public offering came in 2011. The company has also grown through acquisitions, purchasing Internet start-up companies Rapportive and SlideShare in 2012. The site has become the main Internet option for professional networking.

The company has shown a profit since 2006 and has emerged as one of the most profitable of the Internet start-ups from the Silicon Valley region during Weiner's tenure, reporting earnings of more than $500 million the year it went public. Revenues are raised through advertising and premium membership sales. By 2012, the site had more than 175 million registered members from around the world and was available in a variety of languages. The United States represented approximately half of the membership base, with Europe comprising the next largest group. Although LinkedIn maintains fewer registered users than Facebook or Twitter, its members fit the demographic groups most sought by advertisers, helping drive advertising-based revenues. Competing professional networking companies, including Viadeo and XING, have much smaller membership bases.

Users design a profile that may include a photograph and can upload their résumés. The site is open, but users must establish connections to interact with others through the maintenance and expansion of contact lists. Those seeking contact with a person not among their direct (first-degree) connections may seek the desired connection by soliciting a mutual connection for a introduction, which can be done by examining the profile of the member the user is interested in contacting. LinkedIn's cybersecurity measures and threat responses were questioned in 2012 after hackers intercepted and published more than 6 million user passwords.

The site's professional use drives both its core philosophy and its success. Users seeking employment can post profiles or resumes detailing their skills and experience, search for or be alerted to job openings, research and follow companies, and network with professionals in their field. Employers can list job openings and search for potential candidates. Employers may also receive applications through use of the Apply button with LinkedIn, a plugin introduced in 2011, which allows candidates to apply with their LinkedIn profile.

Those with similar professional interests or fields, career issues, or common schools or companies may form interest groups. Other features included LinkedIn Answers, which allowed users to post questions and receive advice from other members, and LinkedIn Polls. After logging in, members can also access recent job listings, elect to follow particular organizations, and post comments in ongoing discussions within the groups they have joined. Weiner has emphasized in interviews that one vital feature of a social networking site dedicated to professional networking is the avoidance of the nonprofessional and sometimes embarrassing personal photographs or information that often appear on the profiles of general social networking sites such as Facebook.

In 2016, Weiner oversaw the decision to sell LinkedIn to Microsoft. LinkedIn remained an independent company and Weiner retained the position of CEO. In 2018, he was named for Forbes list of the World's Most Reputable CEOs. In 2020, Weiner stepped down and transitioned into the role of executive chair.

Personal Life

Weiner is reluctant to discuss details of his personal life, instead preferring to discuss his professional career and the importance of LinkedIn. He is married to European wife Lisette Weiner, and together they have two children. Weiner briefly left the professional world between his stints at Yahoo! and LinkedIn to help raise his new infant. He lists his interests and hobbies as spending time with his family, golfing, and volunteer and charity work. His voluntary pursuits center on the fields of economic empowerment, education, and health, and he is a supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs.

Weiner maintains the professional and personal passion for digital technology that has largely shaped his career. He has cited the 1995 book Being Digital, by Nicholas Negroponte, as providing him with a demystifying overview of the field of digital technology and forming a key influence on his professional views. He is known for an executive style that blends business sense and creativity, common among Silicon Valley start-ups. He serves on the boards of directors of numerous companies, including LinkedIn, Intuit, DonorsChoose, and Malaria No More. He is also a member of the Compensation and Organizational Development Committee at Intuit.

Bibliography

Aspray, William, and Paul E. Ceruzzi. The Internet and American Business. Cambridge: MIT, 2008. Print.

Butow, Eric, and Kathleen Taylor. How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn: Making Connections and Capturing Opportunities on the Web's #1 Business Networking Site. New York: American Management Association, 2009. Print.

Eadicicco, Lisa. "LindedIn CEO: Here's Why I Sold the Company to Microsoft." Time, 13 June 2016, time.com/4366106/linkedin-microsoft-why/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2024.

Hoffman, Reid, and Ben Casnocha. The Start-up of You. New York: Crown, 2012. Print.

Voytko, Lisette. "LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner Ending 11-Year Run." Forbes, 5 Feb. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/02/05/linkedin-ceo-jeff-weiner-ending-11-year-run/?sh=1f55b9721a83. Accessed 6 Mar. 2024.

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print.

Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.