• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 27, 2009

Yahoo announced Monday that Mitch Spolan has been named vice president of North American field sales as part of an effort to centralize its sales structure for the region.

Spolan, previously Yahoo's senior regional vice president of sales for the southern U.S. in Atlanta, will report to Joanne Bradford, who oversees U.S. sales. All field sales regions will report to Spolan, who will be based in New York and charged with the particular goal of boosting revenue from Fortune 500 advertisers.

In addition, Beth Lawrence, vice president of East Coast sales, will assume the new role as vice president of agency revenue and development and continue to report directly to Bradford. A replacement for Spolan has not been named.

"He'll play a critical role in enhancing Yahoo's presence on Madison Avenue, and as a 10-year veteran of Yahoo, there's no one better to tell our story," said Bradford of Spolan, in a statement. For her part, Bradford will continue to head sales, business marketing, small business and HotJobs.

The moves are part of Yahoo's broader effort to streamline operations under new CEO Carol Bartz, who has taken steps to replace the company's notoriously bureaucratic corporate culture with a more top-down management style. Last week, Yahoo also announced plans to layoff another 5% of its workforce, or about 700 employees.