The appointment will mark a new effort by the Telegraph Group to increase the impact of its online offering after being the first national newspaper to launch a website in 1994, only to see broadsheet rival The Guardian corner the market in recent years.
Van den Belt鈥檚 new role will see her take responsibility for Telegraph.co.uk and the group鈥檚 overall digital strategy.
She said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 really exciting to be joining the new team of executives at the Telegraph Group.
鈥淒igital is pivotal to building the commercial future of the company and should be an integral part of the commercial and overall publishing operation.鈥
The arrival of van den Belt also the latest in a re-shaping of the company by chief executive Murdoch MacLennan in the wake of last year鈥檚 change in ownership from Hollinger International to the Barclay brothers.
Since his arrival last summer a series of high profile exits 鈥 such as the marketing and ad bosses 鈥 have been countered with the appointment of a new raft of experienced staffers, such as Dave King from Emap Advertising to head the sales operation.
MacLennan added: 鈥淎nnelies has a proven track record in the development and innovation of online publishing.鈥
Prior to joining News International and The Times, van den Belt was publisher of The Moscow Times, Russia Business Review and The St Petersburg Times.
She also launched the Russian edition of Men鈥檚 health in 1997 and had a career with cosmetics and skincare giant Johnson & Johnson in Russia.
By Kevin May
Telegraph swoops to capture van den Belt from The Times
Annelies van den Belt, deputy ad sales director and digital director at The Times, has quit the company to join Telegraph Newspapers as director responsible for new media.
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