Child leaves Yahoo! to join Webloyalty

His departure follows the exit last month of Mark Chippendale from his position as Yahoo!'s vice-president of European sales to head advertising for The Sun and News of the World.

Yahoo! UK and Ireland commercial director, Blake Chandlee, insisted these two high-profile departures were independent of each other but said the search giant is reviewing whether these positions need to be refilled, and how best to approach pan-European ad deals.

Child has been with Yahoo! Search Marketing, previously known as Overture, for four and half years. Webloyalty is a post transactional loyalty scheme website, generating revenues for clients by rewarding customers who make purchases.

Yahoo! has three European regional heads: Glen Drury for northern Europe, Christophe Parcot for southern Europe, and Terry Von Bibra for central Europe.

The company is in discussions about how best to structure the reporting lines. It is possible the search marketing teams, who previously reported into Child, will become the responsibility of these European heads.

Commercial boss Chandlee said of the two empty positions: "The company is evaluating the remit of these roles at a European level and no decision has been made."

He added that Chippendale was crucial in developing a European strategy for sales. "It was a very strategic role and we are still trying to understand the sort of person and skills sets that would be required for a European role."

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum.

This article was first published on Media Week