Yahoo has reportedly hired Eric Brown as head of communications for the company according to the Wall Street Journal. Brown is now VP of corporate relations for NetApp. New Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele also previously worked at NetApp. Brown will directly report to Steele.

AllThingsD has Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s memo announcing Brown’s hiring:

Eric is a Silicon Valley communications veteran with 18 years of tech experience. Most recently, Eric and I collaborated at NetApp, where he spent the last nine years helping to transform the company into a multibillion dollar global enterprise. As Vice President of Corporate Relations, Eric managed a large global team and strategic communications program. He was the core communications executive responsible for the company’s recent revamp of brand strategy and execution. He also played a significant communications role in helping the company gain recognition by Fortune magazine as the “Best Company to Work for in America” in 2009.

Bartz appears to be almost done with her management makeover of Yahoo. The big test will be whether the recent reorganization and new hires can deliver concrete improvements in performance and product growth.

Bartz sent some mixed messages from the AllThingsD conference last week about search, saying that Yahoo would sell search/the company if the right offer was presented by Microsoft (“boatloads of money”). However later in her sit-down interview she added that search was also one of Yahoo’s most important properties.

Related Topics: Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling