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Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is fashioning the most substantive changes in her exec ranks since she did a massive restructuring of its staff in late February according to sources close to the situation ldquo She is continuing to clear the set up rdquo said one top exec about the moves which are probably to be announced internally tomorrow Among the shifts in management will be filling the slot left by the departure of North American Audience head Jeff Dossett in May and Corporate Partnership SVP Jim Schinella who as BoomTown previously reported is set to provide at the end of the year Sources said the slots could be filled by

ahoo YHOO insiders or by outsiders Since Dossett left his job has been split between Jimmy Pitaro who runs Vertical Audience Experiences and Tim Mayer who is in charge of Search amp Social Applications They both currently report to U S EVP Hilary Schneider Whoever gets the job of Audience head it is a key role given that Yahoo rsquo s powerful media properties are among its most valuable assets In recent months Yahoo has made some major changes in the way it creates its juggernaut News property I could not learn who will take Schinella rsquo s job inside or out Interestingly Yahoo has yet to make an international head Sources said the party had filled the position using a headhunter but the London based media exec candidate backed out at the last minute That meant Yahoo had to resume its search There might too be other top exec changes all part of Bartz rsquo s consolidation of force at Yahoo She has named a spate of new top execs from outside but has also kept some from the regime of former CEO and co founder Jerry Yang These staffing moves have come even as a flow of execs continued to leave the Silicon Valley Internet giant including most recently Mike Walrath who was SVP of advertising strategy Walrath had led Right Media the online ad exchange Yahoo bought for 680 million in 2007 Walrath was widely expected to leave Yahoo in July at the completion of his earn out from the acquisition sources said so the move was more sudden than expected internally Sources noted that Bartz moved Walrath rsquo s departure forward in order to denote a new scheme for Right Media focused on premium publishers and to floor those ad networks and publishers of lesser ilk Whether this will catch the competitive onslaught in the ad exchange space is an unresolved question given that Google has entered the fray significantly and that Facebook is widely expected to bolster its efforts Lastly several sources said that there are also probably to be more changes on Yahoo rsquo s board which has seen the departure of two members recently In September Maggie Wilderotter said she would provide the board by year rsquo s end And former Yahoo nemesis and investor Carl Icahn left the card in late October Whether Yahoo will replace them or retain its current size of 10 directors is not clear Also possible several sources said would be Bartz taking the chairman title which is presently held by Roy Bostock Bostock along with Yang played a key part in its botched takeover battle with Microsoft MSFT Bartz finally successfully struck a sweeping search and advertising partnership with the software giant this summer which is moving nearer to being launched Print Share Comment Tagged BoomTown Digital Daily Internet Kara Swisher Silicon Valley Yahoo advertising media search applications audience board Carl Icahn Carol Bartz director Exchange Hilary Scheider Jeff Dossett Jerry Yang Jim Schinella Jimmy Pitaro Maggie Wilderotter management Mike Walrath network news partnership publisher restructuring Right Media Roy Bostock social staff Tim Mayer permalink