Dawn Airey: built her career with high-profile jobs at Channel 5, Sky and ITV. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian
Dawn Airey, the former Channel 5, Sky and ITV senior executive, is to run Yahoo's operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Airey, who left pan-European broadcaster and producer RTL after five years in April, is expected to take the role of senior vice-president of Yahoo EMEA.
The appointment marks the end of a protracted hunt by the internet company, which has been using executive search firm Odgers to find a replacement since Rich Riley left as part of a restructure in April last year. Riley went on to be appointed as chief executive at music service Shazam earlier this year.
"It is great to be joining Yahoo, especially at such an exciting point in time," said Airey. "To be part of the Yahoo renaissance was simply irresistible for me and I am very much looking forward to driving change, innovation and growth for the EMEA region."
Airey, one of the UK's most experienced media executives, has built a career on a string of high-profile TV roles, including two stints running Channel 5, as well as posts at ITV and BSkyB.
She is the second of the UK's top female media executives to look to add experience at a digital company to her résumé in the last few months, following advertising veteran Nicola Mendelsohn's move to a similar regional role at Facebook in May.
Yahoo has four regional posts including Airey's, with the EMEA region thought to employ about 700 staff.
"Dawn is well known for her visionary thinking, operational discipline and leadership skills, and I can't wait to work with her as we position Yahoo for growth throughout the EMEA region," said Henrique de Castro, Yahoo's chief operating officer.
Yahoo, which made more than $1bn (£639m) in profits and $5bn in revenues last year, has been attempting to reinvigorate its business after losing ground to rivals including Google.
Last April, the company moved to cut hundreds of jobs in Europe as part of a wider restructure resulting in as many as 2,000 of its total 14,000 worldwide workforce departing.
In Europe the cuts aimed to streamline operations, with the axe falling at its Swiss headquarters and more power devolved to individual countries in the region.
Last July, Yahoo appointed Marissa Meyer – the highly experienced Google veteran, its 20th employee – as chief executive to drive a turnaround of the business.
Airey most recently worked for RTL, Europe's biggest broadcaster which sold Channel 5 to Richard Desmond in 2010, on projects including exploring a cable channel launch in the US.
She left RTL, which also owns The X Factor co-producer Fremantle Media, in mid-April.
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