Roy J. Bostock is an American

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

, businessman who served as chairman of Yahoo! Inc. from January 2008 to May 2012. He currently serves on the board of directors of

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

. From 2000 to 2001 he served as chairman of the advertising firm BCom3 Group, Inc. He is the former chairman of the

Partnership for a Drug-Free America Partnership to End Addiction, formerly called The Partnership for a Drug Free America, is a non-profit organization aiming to prevent the misuse of illegal drugs. The organization is most widely known for its TV ad ''This Is Your Brain on Drugs.'' ...

and is a Trustee Emeritus of

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. On 29 July 2020 he was named Chairman of the Board for cellular medicine startup GID BIO Inc., a company that has a potentially break-through treatment for osteoarthritis in late-stage regulatory review.

Early life

Bostock is a 1962

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

graduate of Duke, where he was an

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

major and a member of the varsity baseball and football teams. Bostock also received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Career

Bostock joined

Benton & Bowles Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York–based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius to ...

in 1964. Following the merger and subsequent creation of

D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles was an advertising agency in the United States with 131 offices in 75 countries. The company was founded in 1906 as the D'Arcy Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Early clients included Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch. Du ...

in 1985, he served as president of the combined company. From 1990 to 1996, he served as chairman and CEO of the company. He also served as chairman and CEO of the McManus Group from 1996 to 2000 and chairman of B/Com3 from 2000 to 2002. On 6 September 2011 Bostock fired Yahoo CEO

Carol Bartz Carol Ann Bartz (born August 28, 1948) is an American business executive, former president and CEO of the internet services company Yahoo!, and former chairman, president, and CEO at architectural and engineering design software company Autodesk ...

by telephone after stormy weather prevented their scheduled face-to-face meeting. Third Point LLC, which has a 5.2% in Yahoo, called for Bostock's resignation along with the rest of the board for a number of reasons.

Personal life

Bostock and his wife, Merilee, have donated more than $13 million to Duke University, and are the namesakes of Duke's Bostock Gates and Bostock Library. These donations include $2 million to Duke Libraries and $5 million to Duke Athletics. He has three children (Victoria, Matthew and Kate) and seven grandchildren (Samuel, Anna and Luke Waters) (Storr, Zachary, Nina, and Ali Bostock). Samuel and Anna Waters are the most recent Duke graduates in the family.

References

External links

Partnership for Public Service biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bostock, Roy J Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard Business School alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Directors of Yahoo! American chairpersons of corporations Duke University trustees Delta Air Lines people American technology chief executives Directors of Morgan Stanley