Terence Steven Semel (born February 24, 1943) is an American corporate executive who was the chairman and CEO of Yahoo!

CBS closed Cinema Center Films in 1972 and Semel moved to Walt Disney Productions, where he was vice president in charge of theatrical distribution until 1975.

Frank Wells announced he was taking a less active role the company in 1981, Semel became president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros. on January 1, 1982.

In April 2001, Semel was granted stock options with an SEC Fair Value of over $110 million as a bonus to join Yahoo.

For example, in a widely publicized exchange at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference, he was asked if Yahoo!

"[6] When questioned on this topic in a Q & A discussion with Peter Bazalgette at The Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention in 2005, his response was "We have to abide by the laws in the countries in which we operate."

Semel had dinner with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, asking them what their business was with Yahoo paying only $7 million annually as its biggest licensor of Google search technology.

Semel resigned as CEO due in part to pressure from shareholders' dissatisfaction over his compensation (in 2006, salary $1, stock options worth $70 million[citation needed]) and performance.

Semel ended his six-year tenure as chief executive officer Monday, June 18, 2007, and handed over the reins to co-founder Jerry Yang in the Internet icon's latest attempt to regain investor confidence.

Having recently been promoted to oversee Yahoo's advertising operations, Decker had widely been regarded as Semel's heir apparent.

Semel is Co-Chair Emeritus of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)[9] In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.