Marissa Mayer had a small-town childhood in Wausau, Wisconsin where she demonstrated an early affinity for math and science. She attended Stanford University where she studied computer science and cognitive psychology. After graduating, she worked at research labs in Zurich and California before joining Google in 1999 as employee number 20. At Google, she led many successful projects including the launches of Gmail, Google Maps, and Google News. In 2012, she became CEO of Yahoo with the goal of restoring the company's profitability and morale.