Yahoo hires Blake Irving as chief product officer

Yahoo has appointed former Microsoft board member Blake Irving as its new chief product officer.

Irving replaces Ari Balogh, who recently announced his intention to step down at Yahoo for "personal reasons".

Irving will take on the role on 17 May. The firm also announced that Prabhakar Raghavan will continue as chief scientist.

"Blake brings to Yahoo genuine large-scale internet expertise from a mature company known for world-class technology," said Carol Bartz, chief executive at Yahoo.

"With leaders like Blake and Prabhakar, I am confident that we will increase technological innovation and deliver against our vision to be the centre of people's online lives."

Irving will take the lead on Yahoo's consumer and advertisement businesses, and expects to deliver new and improved services to marketers.

"Yahoo has an impressive product and technology portfolio that has provided unparalleled value to its customers at scale," said Irving.

"I look forward to working with the team to bring more unique and highly personal experiences to Yahoo consumers, and deliver on the company's promise of science, art and scale to Yahoo advertisers."

The move will be a coup for Bartz, who is trying to rebuild Yahoo's reputation in the industry as well as the morale of its staff. Irving led a team of 4,000 building Microsoft's internet services, developer platforms and advertising eco-system.