Mr Janz will head HuffPost Australia, a joint venture between the US group and Fairfax Media, owner of BusinessDay and The Australian Financial Review.

He will start immediately. The Huffington Post's chief operating officer, Koda Wang, said Mr Janz's skills were unique.

"It's rare to find a leader with both a strong entrepreneurial drive and an obsession for digital media," Mr Wang said.

"Chris will be a tremendous leader of HuffPost Australia, and help take the brand to new heights."

It is the first appointment for the site, which is currently recruiting an editorial director/editor-at-large, editor-in-chief, deputy editor, associate editor as well as other leadership roles.

Mr Janz was the founding chief executive of Allure Media where he was responsible for launching Business Insider, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, POPSUGAR and ShopStyle in Australia. Fairfax owns Allure Media.

He has also had senior editorial and commercial roles at News Corporation and production company Endemol Southern Star.

Fairfax Media Digital Ventures group director Guy Reypert said: "Chris is a passionate digital leader who has taken powerful U.S. digital brands and quickly established them as market leaders in Australia. Chris has the necessary drive and determination to make HuffPost Australia a great success."

Mr Janz will prepare HuffPost Australia's Sydney-based team of independent editors and reporters for the site's launch in the second quarter of 2015.

He said he was "excited to take on this incredible opportunity to make HuffPost Australia an engaging and influential platform for Australians to voice their thoughts, opinions and commentary - whilst leveraging The Huffington Post's global footprint."

Australia is the 14th stop on the Huffington Post's international expansion, which has established websites in Britain, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India and Japan.

The AOL-owned site launched in 2005 and is one of the most popular news websites in the US where it had 117 million unique visitors in December.