Jerry Yang

Editors' note: This photo gallery was initially published February 1. Yahoo's Jerry Yang has been added.

Jerry Yang isn't the first founder or CEO to take the top executive position in his company after time out of the spotlight. Over the years, when the fortunes of the companies they founded headed south, or maybe they just got a little bored, a number of former company leaders have elbowed their way (or have been begged) into the corner office.

Yang, 38, created "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" with David Filo (right) while they were studying for Ph.D.s in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1994. A year later, they formed Yahoo, and soon after, they hired Tim Koogle to be chief executive.

The company went public in 1996. Koogle was replaced in 2001 by Terry Semel. Semel helped the company recover after the dot-com bust but was criticized for the company losing steam during the past 18 months. Yahoo saw its revenue growth and stock price drop, executives depart and Google continue to widen the gap in search advertising.

Yang was promoted from "Chief Yahoo" to CEO on Monday, and Semel stepped down to the role of nonexecutive chairman and adviser to management and the board of directors. Sue Decker, former chief financial officer and most recently head of advertising, became president.

June 20, 2007 7:17 AM PDT

Photo by: Mitchell Aidelbaum