Srinivasan Leaving Yahoo!

Srinivasan, 38, who joined Yahoo in 1995 as its fifth employee, announced her departure on a Yahoo blog: “When we started, Yahoo was a directory of Web sites. We couldn’t wait to see the amazing things people would do when they discovered the Web. This has never been about us or the technology, but about helping people tap into the transformative power of this medium. It’s about what connects you to other people, what connects you to something bigger — and ultimately, what inspires you to recognize and expand your creative capacity to make the world a better place,” she said.

Srinivasan, who chairs the board of San Francisco’s annual jazz festival, said she plans to build a music performance center in New York. She said: “At Yahoo, I’ve witnessed the kinds of circumstances that give rise to great creativity, and I find the same holds true in music: bringing together diverse perspectives in a collaborative spirit, allowing each voice individual expression,” in service she said in her video message.