Whelan leaves The Scotsman, which is also owned by the Barclay brothers, after six years running its sales operation.
Whelan started his career with Oracle Teletext in 1988 and moved on to Mirror Group Newspapers in 1989. In 1995, he became deputy ad manager at The People and, in 1997, he joined the Daily Star as ad manager.
The appointment continues the reshaping of the commercial team by Telegraph Group chief executive Murdoch MacLennan. He was hired by the Barclay brothers last August after they bought the title in June.
In December, MacLennan cleared out the senior commercial team, among them commercial director Mark Payne and group sales director Chris White-Smith.
In the same month, he poached Dave King, chief executive of Emap Advertising, and installed him as executive director.
In January, Katie Vanneck was prised from The Times to join as marketing director and Jim Freeman joined from ZenithOptimedia to head trading across Telegraph Group operations.
Whelan will report to King, who said the team was embarking on a journey that would change the perception of the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs with customers.
His appointment comes as Daily Telegraph lost again in the most recent ABC figures for February, dipping 1.46% to 907,329 compared with The Times, which suffered a smaller loss of 1.04% to 679,190.
The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph are still looking to recruit a new brand team, including a head of brand strategy and communications, a brand manager and head of partnership marketing.
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