It’s barely been two weeks since YAHOO! announced that chief technology officer and chief product officer Ari Balogh would be leaving the company, and now a semi-replacement has been named: Blake Irving, former exec. at Microsoft.
Irving previously worked as a professor at Pepperdine University, and prior to that, was corporate vice president of the Windows Live Platform group at Microsoft.
In a statement Carol Bartz acknowledged that, “Blake brings to Yahoo! genuine large scale Internet expertise from a mature company known for world-class technology.” She continued, “I am confident that we will increase technological innovation and deliver against our vision to be the center of people’s online lives.”

Irving’s first day at YAHOO! will be Mary 17th.