The role will see Eyre oversee the IAB's expansion and further accelerate the growth of online advertising.
Eyre will chair the IAB Leadership Council and front a new and concerted drive to double the share of advertising expenditure taken by interactive media to 2% by autumn 2004.
He will oversee the direction of IAB policy and, alongside Danny Meadows-Klue who remains as chief executive, develop new strategies to contribute to the growth of the online advertising sector and represent online advertising interests to the agency and client communities.
After 16 years in advertising agencies, Eyre went on to become chief executive of Capital Radio, ITV and Pearson Television. He stepped down suddenly from his role as Pearson Television chief executive after less than 15 months in the job.
Eyre was understood to have been frustrated when his job changed as a result of the merger of Pearson's TV interests with those of Bertelsmann and Vivendi to create RTL.
Eyre said: "The internet is the fastest-growing medium in the world. I relish the opportunity to work with its leading companies to build its advertising share. "
Last year, Eyre joined the media communications specialist Unity as an associate partner to advise on strategic development.
His appointment followed the departure of Derek Morris, one of Unity's founders who left to join Publicis as the chief strategic officer. Eyre is also the chairman of RDF Media and has a non-executive role at 19 Group, the TV and music group owned by the pop svengali Simon Fuller.
During six years at Capital Radio, he expanded the group from two to 12 stations and grew the value of Capital fourfold as radio's share of display advertising grew from 2% to more than 5%. In 1997, he became chief executive of ITV and his leadership saw a new senior team recruited to undertake a fundamental reworking of ITV's approach in pursuit of demanding published targets.
In 2000, Eyre became chairman and chief executive of Pearson TV, and integrated the company into RTL after their merger in 2000. Since leaving RTL, he has taken on a number of non-executive roles in high growth, creative businesses and written his first novel.
In a combined statement, the IAB Leadership Council, which includes companies such as AOL, Freeserve and MSN, said: "Richard Eyre was our unanimous first choice to help us accelerate the growth of online advertising. He brings a unique mix of experience, energy, commitment and track record at a critical time for us. We are all thrilled that he has agreed to chair our industry."
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