Yahoo's cofounder is stepping down as CEO of the struggling web portal, leaving the company in a state of uncertainty. iMedia polled the interactive marketing industry's thoughts on potential successors.

Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang has announced that he will step down as CEO and return to his previous role as Chief Yahoo, a corporate strategy role. The embattled Yang will remain CEO until Yahoo names his successor, a process in which he will participate. In addition to his strategy role, Yang will remain active on the board of directors.

Yang assumed the CEO role at the board's request in June 2007. His tenure at Yahoo included several high-profile missteps for the portal, including his strong opposition to a $44 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft and the recently aborted search advertising pact with Google. As Yang steps aside, the company he cofounded is clearly struggling to find its identity.

"And now I believe the time is right for us to bring in a new leader -- someone who will build on the important pillars we've put in place and who will take the reins on the critical decisions our company faces," Yang said in a blog post.

As Yahoo begins the process of finding a new CEO, iMedia asked a handful of leaders in interactive who they think should succeed Yang and what the new CEO's first order of business should be.

Here are their nominations -- and we'd like to hear your input as well. Vote for which of these candidates you think will do the best job, or suggest your own in the comments below.

Adam Broitman, director of strategy and ringleader, Crayon
Although it is tough to say who specifically I would choose as Jerry Yang's successor, I can say with certainty that the reins of one of the world's largest internet brands must be taken over by someone with real online advertising experience. It makes perfect sense for Eric Schmidt, a computer scientist, to be at the helm of Google, but given Yahoo's declining role as a service-based organization, and their strong position as an entertainment brand, it only makes sense that the company should be led by a visionary who knows how to connect brands with content.

The new leader's first order of business should be to take stock of all of Yahoo's assets, and analyze how each is currently being monetized. It has been my experience that Yahoo has not always been top notch when it comes to providing cross platform, creative media solutions. Furthermore, I feel that Yahoo can do a better job of getting more dollars from a larger pool of advertisers. Again, my experience with Yahoo is that top tier advertisers get all the love, while other advertisers, with plenty of cash, get shafted. Google has proven that there is a great deal of money in the long tail. Yahoo needs to figure out a way to leverage niche segments of their network, and provide value for a variety of different brands (of various sizes).

Sean X Cummings, principal, SXC Marketing
No one should replace Jerry Yang. I'm serious. Whoever would be chosen would have to be a high profile individual who made Wall Street less nervous. Anyone with that type of clout would be so expensive that they would cost the company millions in compensation, salary, etc. That money could be better spent on a hundred employees who were actually working to make Yahoo more competitive. If they are going to replace him, do it with Carl Icahn ala Chrysler, or Steve Jobs at Apple. A $1 salary. Performance entirely based on stock performance. And they would have to give that individual extreme re-organization powers. Gut the ship and rebuild it leaner.

The first order of business is to gut the ship. Spend a year taking Yahoo's staff down by 50 percent, scale back the projects to essentials that drive profitability, and invest the rest of the money not in building a media company, but in shoring up their technical capabilities, new products and new concepts. The successful players in the business drive technology innovation... they do not just create media space. Google is more stable because they have significant long-tail advertisers, so when their major clients burp, they don't get too sick. Yahoo is in a permanent state of ad recession panic because they concentrate too much of their revenue on the big dogs of advertising.

John Durham, managing partner, Catalyst
I think the CEO should be Sarah Fay: She understands the business, technology and advertising worlds. She inspires confidence, desire and motivation in people. She will bring the company back to its basics -- an advertiser-focused technology company serving as the digital gateway for millions of people.

Noah Elkin, VP of corporate strategy, Steak
Yahoo, while it has good brand awareness, strong customer loyalty and a solid stable of assets, is facing a dwindling display market and continues to fall behind Google in search, so whoever succeeds Jerry Yang faces significant challenges. The right person to meet these challenges is someone with a very varied skill set (potentially difficult to find in one person), including strength in marketing, engineering, content and product development and finance. Above all, Yang's successor has to understand the content, advertising and agency ecosystem that Yahoo depends on and which depends on Yahoo.

In the immediate term, Yang's successor needs to set out how the company will compensate for loss of revenue in display and address what to do with the search business in the wake of the collapse of the deal with Google, but whoever it is also needs to establish a clear vision for the future and lay out a roadmap for reinvigorating the company -- in the eyes of users as well as investors.

Jay Friedman, president, Goodway 2.0
Having spoken to and worked with dozens of different folks at Yahoo over the last few years, I can't say which exact person should replace Yang, just what type of person should replace him.

The book "Good to Great" profiled the leaders of companies that were able to achieve great performance, and all had in common what was termed "level 5" leadership. The most common characteristics of a level 5 leader and how they differ from what we typically see in our leaders is that they are humble, don't seek the spotlight, are extremely frugal in their own lives and are serving a greater cause than making money. This would institute an immediate cultural change at Yahoo, which should be the first order of business.

Yahoo should specifically focus on finding solutions and not worry about technology, platform or category ownership. This would enable more efficient, flexible and, hence, profitable business practices. The Silicon Valley blogs and Wall Street expectations would slam this type of leader so loudly that it's unlikely Yahoo's board would ever go this route. Too bad, since the data supports it and Yahoo is a truly wonderful brand all of us in the online community want to get behind.

Tom Hespos, president, Underscore Marketing
Yang's replacement should be... Jerry Yang.

With all due respect, none of the people who pressured him to step down were present in the Stanford dorm room where Yahoo was born. Yahoo's suitors haven't been able to develop more compelling ad products. If you ask me, Yang is the most qualified to run the company if innovation and value to advertisers are the goals going forward. I would suspect, however, that the goals are more along the lines of "enhancing shareholder value," and if that's indeed the case, someone else should be running it. 

Jim Nichols, senior partner, Catalyst, SF
I'd like to see former head of sales Wenda Harris Millard considered, as that would indicate a refocus on display versus search. Yahoo is tilting at windmills on search but can reassert dominance in display if they act quickly, and Millard is the person who could do it. She'd need a great COO to partner with. I think having a head of sales as CEO could signal to the world that Yahoo means business about monetizing their enormous traffic and innovating within the display sector that they used to rule.

Yahoo has to refocus on display in a big way. After years of treating display like a cash cow, they need to reinvigorate that side of the business by driving innovation in the sector. I'd love to see a great new targeting solution for display come out of the Y!OS initiative.

Julie Roehm, marketing communications consultant, and Jeff Bell, former VP, Microsoft
Jeff likes Jonathan Miller, former CEO at AOL. I tend to be more general in that I think they need a superb "leader." By that, I mean a great vision setter, strategy deployment person (a general of sorts) and above all a great communicator, internally and externally. There are peace-time generals and war-time generals, and I think now is the time for Yahoo to seek the latter.

What to do first? Jeff and I agreed that Yahoo should be focused less on the competition and more on their customers. Right now, despite having been largely ignored this past year, they still have an army of loyal customers that love them. Focus on them and their needs, wants and experience first. 

From there, choose your strategy. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Be a portal or be a search company, but choose! Then, strategize, organize and communicate that, and eliminate or divest that which does not help you be the best at whichever you pick.

Peter Shankman, CEO, The Geek Factory
Gordon Bethune. He ran Continental and took it from last to first place. Why not? It'd be a hoot. This is, of course, assuming that Yahoo is not acquired by Microsoft, which it will be.

Gordon's first job should be to change the philosophy of what Yahoo is. It's not what it once was. What's it good at? Core functions? Enhance those, while culling the rest. Again, it worked for the airline industry.

Rich Cherecwich is associate editor, iMedia Connection.