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Blake Chandlee - the American known in media circles as "The Quarterback" - is all smiles. Small wonder, as he's off for a week's holiday in Mauritius in just a few hours. Being a "real outdoorsy guy" he'll be spending his time scuba diving.

It's a well-earned break for this all-American good guy. In the six months he's been in London, he's already made a big impact as UK commercial director at Yahoo! headquarters, where he replaced Alison Reay.

Greg Grimmer, managing director at digital specialist Zed, says business with the internet behemoth has been noticeably smoother since Chandlee's arrival.

"We've found them easier to deal with - even when they screw up," he says. "They're still not perfect and Blake would admit that, but he's made them better to deal with."

Grimmer's observation will no doubt be music to Chandlee's ears, as his main goal since arriving has been to shake up the organisation and provide a more efficient service to clients and agencies.

Part of of this has been to make moves towards bringing together the display side of the business with its search marketing, recently rebranded from Overture to Yahoo! Search Services. Yahoo! Search is controversially changing its commission structure.

Though Search sits outside Chandler's remit, he says: "How we trade will probably, for a while, still be independent. But we do have the capability to bring those two sides of the business together in a single voice.

"What I've done here is re-engineer the way Yahoo! does business, from a structural and planning perspective, to look forward 12 to 18 months. It was happening a bit before, but I've made it the number one priority," he says.

Unique perspective

"We have to understand how we bring value - our value is going to be that we bring enormous audiences, business solutions rather than just campaigns, consumer insights, all backed up with measurable results."

He has of course got a unique perspective, coming from the US where the digital marketplace is still some months ahead of ours. As Grimmer says: "His role is selling to clients and that's easier when you can say 'this is what the world's going to look like here in 18 months' time'."

But Chandlee is under no illusion that he can simply replicate the US Yahoo! model over here.

"We can learn from the US - they have a lot of resources we can draw on and I'd be foolish not to take advantage of those. But I'd never think I could take everything there and plonk it down here."

One big surprise was how "unsophisticated" targeting in the digital marketplace is in the UK compared with the US. "For a medium that has a one-to-one relationship with consumers, not to be able to use that was very surprising," he says, looking genuinely bemused.

"We can do declared-interest targeting, context-based, geo-targeting, day parts - but where we really want to go is the whole behavioural targeting realm that allows you to go in and find a consumer who is engaged in, for example, car buying.

"No one's offering those solutions here, but it's something we have held as an advantage in the US," he claims.

What the UK has done well, however, is direct marketing. In fact, he credits this expertise with the anomalous 8% share of media spend the internet currently has in the UK - higher than the US share, despite the fact he claims the American market is a good two years ahead.

"Digital specialists are very good at saying 'if you spend X, you'll get Y'," he says. "As newspapers and other media are suffering, it's low-hanging fruit for us and we're doing that."

Complimentary media

But it's not just about stealing share from traditional media, he insists. Despite being something of an internet evangelist, Chandlee believes that all media is complementary.

"There's a role for all of them in the mix. That's the role of the agency, to work out how they're using them together, asking 'how can each medium connect my brand or solve the challenge my business has?'"

The internet will play an increasingly significant role in that mix, he insists, and it is only a matter of time until the still-reluctant big brands, such as those in the FMCG world, migrate online. And when they do, it is Chandlee's mission to make sure Yahoo! is ready.

"I believe we need to fundamentally change the way we do business. Six months ago, we were very much operating as a classified sales organisation, selling short-term, impression-based campaigns. We'd got comfortable with that, and we can't be - we have to plan further ahead."

He was originally charged with turning around the UK operation in 12 to 18 months, but he's moved that forward to nine to 12 months. But Chandlee is in no hurry to rush back States-side.

"I've fallen in love with London," he gushes. "I'm hoping my time here is longer than the two to three years the organisation originally communicated."

Looks like The Quarterback wants to be calling the plays in the UK for a good while yet.

CV

2005: Commercial director UK Yahoo!

2003: Group category development officer, Yahoo!

2002: Founder and senior partner Kryptonite Ventures

2000: Senior vice president sales and business development Clarity Payment Solutions

1999: Senior vice president sales and business development FreeRide.com

1995: Vic president sales - supermarket online Catalina Marketing Corporation

1994: Account supervisor Connecticut Marketing Associates

1992: Director of production and operations Sullivan Marketing.