Former Autodesk Chief Executive Carol Bartz, 60, will be the new CEO at Yahoo.  And that’s a Yahoo! for a woman playing with the big boys in the hallowed tech preserve.  And another kudo for not backing down when the pundits start sharpening their knives for her.

Bartz has a long string of successes so she is well equipped for the job:

• Executive chairman of the board, Autodesk
• CEO, Autodesk, 1992-2006
• VP of worldwide field operations, at Sun Microsystems, 1983-1992
• Product Line and Sales Management positions at Digital Equipment and 3M
• Director on boards of Cisco Systems, Intel, NetApp

Tons of awards, but who’s counting?  The point is Bartz has smarts, experience and moxy.

Some of the pundits have quibbled that she’s a manager and operating person not a Mergers and Acquisition guy.  Did anyone here see Wall Street?

We thought the goal was to run a company, not necessarily sell it or break it up and sell the pieces.

In an online conference call today, Bartz confronted the pundits head on and came out swinging:

“Let’s not put ourselves in some crazy timeline. Let’s give this company some frigging breathing room. Everybody on the outside deciding what Yahoo should or shouldn’t do–that’s going to stop,” she said. Her first meeting with Yahoo’s managers was set for 10 minutes later, she also said. Another moment came when asked about how her background at a company selling software to companies would serve her at an Internet company selling ads and serving a large consumer audience. Bartz was quick to slap down the doubts about her expertise as nonsense.”
“I didn’t know CAD (computer-aided design) when I joined Autodesk, I didn’t know hardware when I joined Sun,” she said. “I have brain power to understand what it takes.”

Now there’s a woman who knows who she is and is about to show us all.  A tip of the hat to Bartz and our hearty congratulations