Tim Koogle: The Grown Up Voice Of Reason At Yahoo!

Timothy Andrew Koogle hardly seems the Silicon Valley bigwig that he has become. As CEO of Internet highflier Yahoo! Inc., Koogle shuns geeky Net-speak. Instead, he talks in T.K.-isms--folksy phrases that draw on his Southern roots. "Mamby-pamby," for instance, is Koogle's term for ideas that lack substance. "Possum syndrome" means indecision--when employees see headlights coming toward them and freeze. Then there's the "rowboat syndrome," which describes people who spend too much time looking backward instead of forward.

No one would accuse Koogle of suffering from that. Since taking the wheel at Yahoo in August, 1995, the 47-year-old executive has been in overdrive. His business savvy, drawn from three engineering degrees and 15 years in high-tech management, has been critical to the success of this company, where the average age is 29. Indeed, Koogle is the voice of reason in an environment brimming with breathless Net enthusiasts. "He's very decisive and very focused," says board member Michael Moritz, who interviewed a half-dozen candidates for the top job before settling on Koogle.