Ireland moves to the role from his present position of acting vice-president of strategy, which he took up in December. Before that he was commercial director of BSkyB, where he built the Sky Interactive division.
The creation of a more senior marketing role comes as AOL widens the number of products it sells, such as AOL Talk, with Ireland focusing on strategy and long-term planning. A replacement for Lang, who still works for AOL as a consultant, is expected to be made in the near future.
At AOL, Ireland will oversee marketing, consumer insight, communication and product marketing, and oversee the integration of these teams with the member services functions. It will be the first time all the functions operate in one department. He reports to Karen Thomson, chief executive and chairman of AOL UK.
AOL UK retains Grey London as its creative agency and Vizeum for media buying. Although it is due to review its media arrangements as part of a regular review process, this is not expected to happen for at least six months.
The appointment comes as AOL UK's owner, Time Warner, looks at selling a stake in America Online. It has been in talks with MSN, but reports say that Google and Comcast are also interested in making a joint bid.
"By integrating our customer-facing teams more closely, we can create even more value for the consumer and differentiation from our competitors," Thomson said.
Ireland worked for the infamous fashion website Boo.com, where he was chief operating officer, as well as spending seven years as a management consultant at McKinsey.
"The strength of the AOL brand combined with the scale of one of the largest subscriber bases in the UK is a great platform for growth, and I am very excited to be joining a world-class team in a business with so much potential," Ireland said.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .