Yahoo CEO Yang to speak at Technology Council event

Usually, it would not be very impressive to tell people that a yahoo will be the keynote speaker at your organization's biggest event.

But the Utah Technology Council said Monday that Jerry Yang, the chief executive officer, co-founder and self-proclaimed "chief yahoo" of Yahoo, will be the featured speaker at the council's 10th annual Hall of Fame gala, set for Oct. 24.

"The Hall of Fame is a unique platform for honoring and recognizing individuals whose technology innovations have shaped our culture," said Richard R. Nelson, the council's president and CEO, and chairman and CEO of the national Technology Councils of North America, in a prepared statement. "Jerry Yang's Yahoo career exemplifies the (Hall of Fame) ideals, and we are honored to be able to hear from him."

Inductees for this year's event have not been announced. The black-tie Hall of Fame event will begin with networking at 6 p.m. in the Grand America Hotel. Tickets and more information are available at www.utahtech.org or by contacting Mark Lehnhof at 801-568-3500 or mark@utahtech.org.

Yang, a native of Taiwan raised in San Jose, Calif., co-created the Yahoo Internet navigational guide in April 1994 with David Filo and co-founded Yahoo Inc. in April 1995. He was appointed chief executive officer of the company in June 2007.

The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., helps users communicate with each other and conduct transactions, as well as access, share, and create information. Yahoo offers the world's largest network of integrated services, with more than 500 million users worldwide.

Yang's work at Yahoo has focused on corporate strategy, the company's technological vision, strategic business partnerships, international joint ventures and recruiting key talent.

The Utah Technology Council, which represents Utah's 5,200 science and technology companies, has featured several tech-industry leaders at its Hall of Fame event in recent years. Last year, the featured speaker was Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel Corp. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was the speaker in 2006.

The event honors people with Utah ties who have made key contributions to the information-technology and life-sciences industries through new technology, innovation and leadership. Past Hall of Fame inductees have included Iomega co-founder and executive David Bailey, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and Pixar Animation Studios co-founder and president Edwin E. Catmull.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com

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