• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 19, 2010

Yahoo Monday confirmed hiring ex-Microsoft exec Blake Irving as chief product officer. He will report directly to CEO Carol Bartz and be responsible for the vision and strategy behind the company’s global consumer and advertiser product portfolio.

In a statement, Bartz said Irving, brings “genuine large scale Internet expertise from a mature company known for world-class technology.� Joining Yahoo on May 17, Blake is replacing Ari Balogh, the company’s current of products and technology, who will depart in June.

Before his most recent stint as a professor at Graziadio School of Business and Management in Malibu, Irving oversaw development of the Windows Live Platform at Microsoft, leading a team of 4,000 in building the Internet services platform.

Prabhakar Raghavan will continue to lead innovation efforts at Yahoo! Labs as Chief Scientist and will also report to Bartz. Together Irving and Raghavan are tasked with “speeding key inputs and decision making into product strategy and direction."