Gideon Lee Yu (born May 14, 1971) is a Korean-American technology, media and sports investor, executive and advisor. Yu is currently a co-owner of the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

football team. He was previously the team president. In 2012, Yu became the first president of color in the history of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

.NFL scores A for racial hiring
''ESPN'', October 22, 2013 Prior to his career in professional sports management, Yu was a high-technology executive, most notably as the chief financial officer of both

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

YouTube Hires Yahoo! Treasurer
TheStreet.com, September 3, 2006 as well as the senior vice president and treasurer of

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

Career

Yu graduated from the University School of Nashville in 1989, where he was student body president and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2011. He then attended Stanford University, majoring in

Industrial Engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...

and Engineering Management and received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Harvard Business School. In 1989, he received the First Place Grand Award in Environmental Science at the 40th International Science and Engineering Fair. In his time with the 49ers, Yu led the team's efforts in financing

Levi's Stadium Levi's Stadium is an American football stadium located in Santa Clara, California, just outside San Jose in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has served as the home venue for the National Football League (NFL)'s San Francisco 49ers since 2014. T ...

, 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. Perhaps the most notable distinction during Yu's tenure at the

, however, is that he is the first president of color of any team in the history of the

. He currently resides in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Prior to joining the San Francisco 49ers football team, Yu was a General Partner at

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successf ...

, where he led the firm's investment in

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

and was the founding outside board member (Yu's board seat was later transferred to Vinod Khosla). Previously, Yu was the chief financial officer of

. 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.” Yu led the $375 million investment round from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

and Hong-Kong billionaire

Li Ka Shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

at a then record $15 billion valuation. Zuckerberg further noted to the Wall Street Journal about Yu, “He's just excellent.” Before Facebook, Yu was a partner at Sequoia Capital, and was also the chief financial officer at

where he negotiated its $1.65 billion sale to

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

amidst a competitive auction for the company. Prior to YouTube, Yu was the

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...

and senior vice president of Finance for

where he executed over 30 acquisitions/investments for Yahoo, including Alibaba,

Taobao Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba ...

, Overture, Inktomi,

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

del.icio.us Delicious (stylized del.icio.us) was a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter and Peter Gadjokov in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. By the end of 2008, ...

and over $5 billion of capital markets transactions. Prior to Yahoo, Yu was the chief financial officer of NightFire Software (acquired by NeuStar, NYSE: NSR) and held positions at

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, Hilton, and DLJ / CSFB.

Philanthropy

Yu serves on the board of trustees of the

Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey Bay Aquarium is a nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. Its biologists ...

and the board of directors of

Tipping Point Community Tipping Point Community is a grant-making organization aiming to break the cycle of poverty for people in the San Francisco Bay Area whose income level is too low to meet their basic needs. It was founded by Daniel Lurie in 2005. In addition to ...

. Yu is also active philanthropically at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he "made a significant commitment to undergraduate scholarships" and "is volunteering as a member of the School of Engineering Advisory Council and the School of Earth Sciences Task Force." He previously served on the boards of directors of the

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

Medical Foundation, and BUILD.

References

External links

2011 "Forbes" Names You Need to Know

The 2012 Silicon Valley 100

Yu Among ''Treasury & Risk Magazine's'' 40 under 40

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Gideon Google employees Facebook employees Yahoo! employees Private equity and venture capital investors Venture capitalists Living people 1971 births Stanford University alumni Harvard Business School alumni American people of Korean descent American chief financial officers 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople