Gideon Yu

Gideon Yu
Born (1971-05-14) May 14, 1971
Seoul, South Korea
Education Harvard Business School
Stanford University
University School of Nashville
Occupation President & Co-Owner of the San Francisco 49ers
Spouse(s) Susie Yu(korean:민혜정)
Children Jonathan

Gideon Lee Yu (born May 14, 1971)[1] is a Korean-American sports executive and a high technology investor and advisor.

Yu is currently the Co-Owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team. He was previously the team president.[2] In 2012, Yu became the first President of color in the history of the National Football League.[3] Prior to his career in professional sports management, Yu was a high-technology executive, most notably as the Chief Financial Officer of both Facebook[4] and YouTube[5] as well as the Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Yahoo.[6]

Career

Gideon graduated from the University School of Nashville in 1989,[7] followed by Stanford University, majoring in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1989, he received the First Place Grand Award in Environmental Science at the 40th International Science and Engineering Fair.[8]

In his time with the 49ers, Yu led the team's efforts in financing Levi's Stadium, including securing an $850 million stadium construction loan, the largest ever in professional sports, a $200 million financing package from the NFL and the largest long-term stadium financing in NFL history. Yu also directed the 49ers drive to accelerate the opening date of Levi’s Stadium from the 2015 to 2014 season.[9] Perhaps the most notable distinction during Yu's tenure at the San Francisco 49ers, however, is that he is the first President of color of any team in the history of the National Football League.[3]

Prior to joining the San Francisco 49ers football team, Yu was a General Partner at Khosla Ventures,[10] where he led the firm's investment in Square and was the founding outside board member (Yu's board seat was later transferred to Vinod Khosla).[11]

Previously, Gideon was the Chief Financial Officer of Facebook.[12] Upon Yu’s hiring, Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, speaking with the Wall Street Journal, said: "I consider it kind of a coup that we were able to recruit him here.”[13] Yu led the $375 million investment round[14] from Microsoft and Hong-Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing[15] at a then record $15 billion valuation. Zuckerberg further noted to the Wall Street Journal about Yu, “He's just excellent.”[13]

Before Facebook, Gideon was a Partner at Sequoia Capital,[16] and was also the Chief Financial Officer at YouTube[5] where he negotiated[17] its $1.65 billion sale[18] to Google amidst a competitive auction for the company.

Prior to YouTube, Gideon was the Treasurer and Senior Vice President of Finance for Yahoo[19] where he executed over 30 acquisitions/investments for Yahoo, including Alibaba, Taobao, Overture, Inktomi, Flickr, del.icio.us and over $5 billion of capital markets transactions. Prior to Yahoo, Gideon was the Chief Financial Officer of NightFire Software (acquired by NeuStar, NYSE: NSR) and held positions at Disney, Hilton, and DLJ / CSFB.

Philanthropy

Gideon is active philanthropically and serves on the Boards of Directors of the UCSF Medical Foundation,[20] Tipping Point Community[21] and BUILD.[22]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.