Yellow gets permanent CEO for digital push

Interim CEO Scott Pomeroy will remain on Yellow’s board

After almost 18 months with an interim CEO, directories company Yellow has appointed a permanent CEO from within its own ranks.

Chris Armistead, currently managing director at Yellow and a member of the company’s executive team for 12 months, will succeed interim CEO Scott Pomeroy on August 1.

Pomeroy will remain on Yellow’s board.

A “robust global search” was conducted before appointing Armistead, says chairman Andrew Day. He has been helping Yellow “transform our business to digital”, says Day and this direction will continue under him as CEO.

Armistead has 26 years’ international experience in the directories industry. Before joining Yellow, he was an executive director at AT&T Interactive working on yellowpages.com products for the national sales channel. He has also held senior strategic roles for Sensis Australia (Telstra’s directories arm) and was managing director at World Directories (Truvo) for the Netherlands and Portugal.

Yellow has a three-year digital transformation plan, which started when Pomeroy was appointed early last year. It aims to provide even small-to-medium enterprises with a “one-stop shop” for digital directory entries, and help with website and social media presence as well as Google Adwords, says communications manager Katherine Cornish.

At present, 25 percent of Yellow’s revenue is from its digital business, she says. The company aims to have 50 percent of new business coming from digital within five years. However, there are no current plans to abandon print directories.