One of Yahoo’s top executives has jumped ship and joined Square

Everyone had high hopes for Marissa Mayer when she was became the CEO of Yahoo a few years back, but not only is the company still losing market share to the likes of Facebook and Google, it’s losing executives as well. The latest executive to abandon Yahoo is Jacqueline Reses, the company’s former chief development officer who recently left, and has joined up with Square’s executive team, which happens to come at a time when the startup is preparing to go public. 

One of the top lieutenants in Silicon Valley is leaving the side of one high-profile Internet executive in Marissa Mayer to join another, Jack Dorsey. Jacqueline Reses is departing Yahoo! Inc., where she had been chief development officer, to join Dorsey’s Square Inc., helping boost the startup’s executive team while dealing a blow to the Web portal, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. Reses’ role changed earlier this year when she shifted her focus to Yahoo’s spinoff of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that is worth about $27 billion, a person familiar with the matter said in July. The arrival of Reses comes after Dorsey was this month named permanent chief executive officer of Twitter Inc., a role he also holds at Square ahead of its initial public offering. Adding her leadership could help lighten the load for Dorsey amid concerns about his dual responsibilities.