Neal Richter, Director of Science of Amazon Advertising, Named Chair of IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors for Fourth Year

New Board Members EMX Digital, GroundTruth, Sharethrough, and T-Mobile Join Top Executives from Amazon, Meta, Oracle, GroupM, NBCUniversal, and Microsoft

NEW YORK, April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standard-setting body, announced today that they have elected their 2022 board members. Board members are voted in by the wider membership base and are responsible for determining IAB Tech Lab's strategic direction during their appointed term. This year, leadership from EMX Digital, GroundTruth, Sharethrough, and T-Mobile will join the IAB Tech Lab board to contribute to the strength of the digital advertising ecosystem.

IAB Tech Lab currently has over 800 members across the digital advertising ecosystem and is responsible for pioneering respected and widely adopted industry standards such as OpenRTB, ads.txt, the Open Measurement SDK, and more. In addition to the new board members, IAB Tech Lab has announced Neal Richter, Director of Science at Amazon Advertising, as Chair of the organization's Board of Directors for the fourth year in a row. As Chair for the past three years, Richter has been a member of the Board since its inception as the IAB Ad Technology Advisory Council.

"Neal has been a member of the Board from the very beginning and has been instrumental in helping to move the industry forward. With a finger on the pulse of the latest innovations in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Neal has contributed to a number of notable achievements including the development of the OpenRTB protocol, ads.txt, ads.cert, sellers.json, and other associated standards," said Anthony Katsur, Chief Executive Officer, IAB Tech Lab. "Neal is a true visionary and I look forward to another year of working closely alongside him and the Board of Directors to ensure that we create a thriving, unified marketplace to address the concerns of our members and the industry at large."

Richter is a software industry veteran with over 25 years of experience. For the vast majority of his career, he's been focused on data science, machine learning, and AI applications. He is currently the Advertising Science Director for Amazon DSP, where he oversees a team of data scientists and engineers focused on RTB bidding algorithms and systems across display, mobile, audio, and video. Prior to joining Amazon, Dr. Richter was Chief Scientist at SpotX, Chief Technical Officer at Rakuten Marketing, and CTO and Chief Scientist at the Rubicon Project.

"As the industry is at a crucial moment with the changes in rules for cookies and identifiers, IAB Tech Lab is the leading trade organization tackling the issues of privacy, identity, and addressability for all constituents within the digital ad ecosystem," said Richter. "I look forward to continuing to collaborate with the members of the Board, Anthony Katsur and all members of IAB Tech Lab to ensure we evolve the changing ecosystem and meet the needs of companies and the consumers they serve." 

New members of the IAB Board of Directors elected for a two-year term include:

• Michael Zacharski, Chief Executive Officer, EMX Digital
• Eddie Dingels, Chief Operating Officer, GroundTruth
• Curt Larson, Chief Product Officer, Sharethrough
• Michael Peralta, Vice President & General Manager, T-Mobile Marketing Solutions

Additionally, J. Allen Dove, Chief Technology Officer of Magnite, has been appointed to the board in an interim fashion pending next year's election by our members.

The remaining IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors is comprised of the following:

• Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer, CafeMedia
• Daniel Brackett, Chief Technology Officer, Extreme Reach
• Will Bullock, Director, Statistic & Privacy (R&D), Meta
• Ray (Jiayi) Cao, Managing Director, Head of Global Product Strategy and Operations, TikTok
• Travis Clinger, Senior Vice President of Addressability and Ecosystem, LiveRamp
• Karan Dalal, Senior Vice President, Operations, Media.net
• Giovanni Gardelli, Senior Director, Ad Targeting Products, Yahoo
• Mark Kopera, Senior Director, Product Management – Oracle Advertising and CX, Oracle Advertising
• Ai Matsubara, Video Ads Specialist, Yahoo Japan
• Ryan McConville, Executive Vice President, Ad Platforms, NBCUniversal
• Derek Nicol, Vice President, Advertising Technology, ViacomCBS
• Jeff Olchovy, Chief Technology Officer, Tapad
• Michael Palmer, Global Vice President, Emerging Technologies, GroupM
• Todd Parsons, Chief Product Officer, Criteo
• Gruia Pitigoi-Aron, Senior Vice President, Product, The Trade Desk
• Aleksandr Rebrikov, Partner Architect, Microsoft
• Chris Record, Senior Vice President, Product, Technology & Operations – SXM Media & AdsWizz, Pandora
• Paul Ryan, Chief Technology Officer, OpenX
• John Sabella, Chief Technology Officer, PubMatic
• Gyanda Sachdeva, Vice President, Product, LinkedIn
• Tom Sharma, Chief Product Officer, Integral Ad Science
• Ashish Shukla, Chief Technology Officer, MediaMath
• Steve Silvers, Senior Vice President, Product & GM, Customer Experience, Neustar Inc.
• Somer Simpson, Vice President, Product, Quantcast
• Michael Smith, Chief Data Officer, Hearst
• Kevin Solinger, Vice President, Product Management, Xandr
• Ken Weiner, Chief Technology Officer, GumGum

IAB Tech Lab Executive Committee includes::

• Andrew Casale, President & Chief Executive Officer, Index Exchange
• David Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, Interactive Advertising Bureau
• Sheryl Goldstein, Executive Vice President, Member Engagement & Development, Interactive Advertising Bureau
• Neal Richter (Chairperson), Director of Science, Amazon Advertising
• Scott Spencer. Vice President, Product Management, Privacy and User Trust, Google

For more information about the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors, please visit iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/tech-lab-leadership/.

About IAB Technology Laboratory
Established in 2014, the IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that engages a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on solutions for brand safety and ad fraud; identity, data, and consumer privacy; ad experiences and measurement; and programmatic effectiveness. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, and Project Rearc initiative for privacy-centric addressability. Board members/companies are listed at https://iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/tech-lab-leadership/. For more information, please visit https://iabtechlab.com.

SOURCE IAB Tech Lab