Yahoo vice-president Taylor leaves to start up his own consultancy

Stephen Taylor, Yahoo! European regional vice-president managing director of search, has become the latest high-profile departure from the search engine giant. It is understood he is planning to launch his own consultancy.

His departure comes just a week after head of global sales Gregory Coleman announced he is leaving the company, following a restructure led by Yahoo! president Susan Decker. Taylor denies his exit is linked to the changes implemented from the US, but says it was, instead, a natural progression “having been there some years”.

Yahoo! is understood to be seeking a replacement for Taylor, but has yet to make an appointment.

Taylor declined to comment on his next move, but adds: “There are a lot of interesting things going on in the industry and I’m having many conversations with lots of interesting people, but can say no more than that.”

Taylor, who reported to Dominique Vidal, regional vice-president and managing director of Yahoo! Europe, had overall responsibility for consumer product innovation and for building the business, and was responsible for rolling out Yahoo!’s commitment to social search in Europe.

Taylor joined Yahoo! as part of its acquisition of Overture network in 2003, where he was commercial director. At Overture, Taylor helped move the company from a single to a multi-product organisation and from serving three European countries to 13.

In 2004, he was appointed managing director of Overture Europe, being promoted the following year to the role of regional vice-president and managing director for Overture Europe in April 2005.

Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang recently returned to take over as chief executive from Terry Semel after a disappointing performance in the fight against Google.