• by Laurie Petersen , May 31, 2007

Yahoo's chief technology officer Zod Nazem, an 11-year veteran of the company, is retiring, effective June 8.

"After spending the last 26 years in this fast-paced technology industry, I've finally decided it's time to slow down," he wrote yesterday on the company blog.

Yahoo founder Jerry Yang will step in as interim executive sponsor of the Technology Group until a permanent replacement is found.

Among Nazem's last initiatives was the launch of the Panama search monetization system.

"It was very important to me to drive all the way to my last day here at Yahoo! without distractions of an announcement like this. So we chose to make the announcement and my end date as close as possible," he wrote.

Speculation in some quarters is that tech giant Microsoft plans to make a bid for Yahoo, but an executive downplayed that notion last week during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference.

Nazem's resignation is the latest in a string of Yahoo talent departures.