Yell hires strategy chief in digital push Yell, the heavily indebted directories group, has stepped up its efforts to turn round the business with the appointment of a chief strategy and business development officer. The publisher of the UK's Yellow Pages on Tuesday appointed Matt Anderson to the newly created post that will focus upon bolstering the group's digital expansion. Yell's directories division has suffered as consumers increasingly use the internet for their business searches, dragging down print revenues at the group, which has operations in the UK, US, Spain and Latin America. In response, Yell has honed its focus on providing digital services for small and medium-sized businesses, and Mr Anderson's appointment will augment this strategy. Mr Anderson, who will be based in Yell's Houston office, joins from Booz & Company, the consultancy, where he worked as a partner in the consumer media and digital division, focusing on digital and technology trends in e-commerce, social media, mobile and digital media. "Matt played an instrumental role while working at Booz on the development of Yell's new business strategy and was closely involved in brokering relationships with new partners including Bazaarvoice and Netbiscuits as well as our acquisition of Znode," Mike Pocock, Yell chief executive, said. Now, as a key member of my executive team, Matt will bring his strategic insights and relationships directly to the centre of Yell's transformation. Before joining Booz & Company, Mr Anderson worked at Katzenbach Partners, the consultancy, and was focused on retail, technology, payments, energy and health. "I relish the chance to be a part of driving the transformation and believe my expertise across media, digital and Web 2.0 will help position Yell to lead in this space," Mr Anderson said. On Tuesday, Yell also announced the appointment of Libby Chambers as an independent non-executive director and member of the remuneration committee. Ms Chambers had previously worked for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and also held roles at Barclays Bank and Bank of America. The management changes follow a tough year for the directories group, which is struggling under a £2.6bn net debt burden that was built up through a series of acquisitions, including the €3.3bn purchase of its Spanish directories business in 2006. Last month, the publishing group reached a compromise with lenders over the terms of its debt, giving Yell more headroom within its banking covenants and buying it more time to implement a turnround strategy. Yell agreed a deal with "an overwhelming majority of lenders" to ease its banking covenants, which are based on the ratio of net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. The agreement came after several weeks of negotiations where two sets of lenders clashed over the restructuring. Yell shares, which have lost almost two-thirds of their value over the past 12 months, on Tuesday were flat at 5.29p, valuing the group's equity at £125m.