I guess the headline tips my hand. I’m taking on a new role at Yahoo: running the Advanced Products group, a position just vacated by Scott Gatz. Scott has built a great team and I have big shoes to fill, but the groundwork that Scott and his team have laid only increases my excitement about taking on the new challenge.
Obviously, that means that I’m moving on from the Yahoo! Developer Network (aka YDN) team. I’m really proud of the work the YDN team has done over the past 18 months and I’m honored that we were able to help surface and represent the incredible work of so many teams inside Yahoo! Working closely with product teams all over Yahoo, we rolled out APIs that opened up large chunks of Yahoo’s infrastructure: Yahoo! Mail, Browser-based Authentication and Yahoo! Answers, just to name a few. Aside from the APIs, the YUI team continued their impressive work, incredibly useful performance tools like YSlow were released, and Yahoo’s work with Hadoop emerged. We pulled off a couple of Open Hack Days that were simply mind-blowing (Beck playing on the grass outside our fitness center in Sunnyvale?! Rain indoors in London?!). Through it all, I was constantly humbled by the talent and capability of the individuals and teams within the company. Best of all, I was inspired by lots of developers with big dreams and ideas. If I take just a small fraction of that inspiration with me into the new role, I will be truly blessed.
The YDN experience was over-the-top fun by any reasonable standard. I met Beck, played an impromptu game of Faceball on stage at London Hack Day (and lost), and interviewed the kind citizens of Dublin on the streets during Mashup Camp. While there are literally hundreds of people who deserve thanks around Yahoo, I want to thank the core YDN team for making it such a great experience: Matt McAlister, Jeremy Zawodny, Dan Theurer, Micah Laaker, JR Conlin, Kent Brewster, Ricky Montalvo, and Jason Levitt. (And I demand a sushi lunch!)
I’m really happy about where YDN is headed and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the things in the pipeline emerge. Chris Yeh (cyeh -at- yahoo-inc.com) is taking over YDN from here, and I’ll be helping the team any way I can as part of the extended Yahoo! team. Good luck to Chris, and stay tuned for some interesting things coming from my new sphere at Yahoo!
Congrats Chad –
Can’t wait to see the things you bring out of the Advanced Products Group
Congrats, Chad!
—Theory
Congratulations, Chad. We’ll miss you at YDN but expect great things from Advanced Products…
Congrats! Looking forward to hearing how you make the faceballs rain down at the Advanced Products group. Watch out for lightning strikes.
Good luck mister Superstar! Wishin’ ya the best!
Chad rules.
Richly deserved, Chad. Congratulations!
How many people get to say that they’ve run both of the coolest groups in all of Yahoo!?
One.
congrats chad
You truly are…and always will be the “commissioner of hack.”
Well, I’ll say it. You’ll be missed horribly around the cubes, but I’m VERY happy you’re taking on this role now. (Frankly, I couldn’t imagine anyone better suited after Scott.) Congrats! and have fun.
Congrats, Chad! Beers after work ? Every day now ?
Woohoo!
Congrats Chad!
All the best Chad.
- prem
Congratulation! Sounds like a great move for you. I look forward to what is coming next.
obviously, you were able to tell Bradley how many manhole covers can fit in a 747
congrats and welcome. . . officially!
Hi Chad
belated congratulations on the new gig – sounds exciting.
Best Wishes for 2008
Slan
Fergus
Catching up with my feedreader, so just read this…congrats Chad! Looking forward to hearing more about your work at APG.