John was at Modem Media for the first-ever digital ad campaign and later led MMA, [x+1] and FlashtalkingMore
61. Jonah Goodhart – Colonize-ing Right Media and building a Moat
Jonah was the founder as a Cornell student with his brother Noah of Colonize, which became a big customer of DoubleClick’s remnant network. They later backed Right Media and co-founded Moat, acquired by Oracle.More
60. Katrin Ribant – giving us the data on Datorama
Katrin was a co-founder of Datorama in 2012 and the platform was acquired by Salesforce in 2018 for a reported $800 million. She is now CEO of Ask-Y and an angel investor.More
59. Andy Atherton – optimizing Yahoo, Brand.net and AppNexus
Andy was head of pricing at Yahoo when they brought on both Rapt and Right Media for optimization and networking. He also co-founded Brand.net and worked at AppNexusMore
58. Jeff Hirsch – all the -Clicks in SoCal lead to AudienceScience
Jeff was at early ad networks ValueClick and co-founder of FastClick in SoCal before becoming CEO of AudienceScience, which may have built the first DMP for its client Procter and Gamble as part of the secret Project HawkeyeMore
57. Mike Yavonditte – optimizing Alta Vista, Quigo and Yieldmo
Mike is CEO and co-founder of Yieldmo, and formerly was CEO of contextual ad network Quigo which was acquired by AOL in 2007 and became part of Advertising.comMore
56. Tom Chavez – giving us the Rapt on Krux and data
Tom was co-founder of the DMP Krux in 2010 and before that co-founded a yield management platform called Rapt, sold to Microsoft in 2007. He is currently co-founder of the startup studio SuperSet, focused on data management issues.More
55. Ari Paparo – influencing DoubleClick, Beeswax and more
Ari is a well-known influencer, media mogul, former DoubleClicker, Nielsen patent holder, founder of Beeswax and LaunchScience and much more.More
54. Lee Nadler – marketing DoubleClick in Silicon Alley
Lee was the original head of marketing at DoubleClick in the 90s and the force behind its notorious guerilla tactics including the Flatiron sign ‘DoubleClick Welcomes You to Silicon Alley’More
53. Omar Tawakol – from BlueKai to AI and the all-new Rembrand
Omar co-founded pioneering data platform BlueKai and lead Oracle Data Cloud before launching Voicera and now Rembrand – and AI tool for video product placementMore
52. Ana Milicevic – managing data from Demdex to Sparrow
Ana was product manager at the early DMP Demdex before its sale to Adobe in 2011 and now runs the consulting firm Sparrow Advisors.More
51. Wes Nichols – measuring the impact of MarketShare
Wes was co-founder and CEO of MarketShare, based on some academic insights, which measured the impact of ad spend for major marketers. It was acquired by Neustar in 2015 for $450M.More
50. Brian Andersen – shining a light on LUMA Partners
Brian is co-founder with Terry Kawaja of LUMA Partners, the best-known boutique investment bank operating at the luminescent nexus of digital media and marketing technology.More
49. David Wamsley – running an AdAuction in the dot-com days
Dave was the co-founder and CEO of AdAuction which was an innovative digital auction platform for remnant inventory starting in 1997 until the dot-com meltdown – he now runs Rosebud PR in FloridaMore
48. Brian O’Kelley (part 3) – the AppNexus adventure
Brian co-founded AppNexus in 2007 as a cloud hosting platform, morphing into an SSP and then DSP, meanwhile pioneering header bidding and RTB and more.More
47. Larry Braitman – fishing for dot-com dollars with Flycast
Larry co-founded Flycast in 1996 as an early remnant-focused ad network with user-friendly ad and publisher tools to minimize CPMs for reach on ‘long tail’ publishersMore
46. Jay Schwedelson – was WebConnect the first ad network?
Jay Schwedelson founded one of the first ad networks in 1995, called WebConnect, and took an ethical stance against cookies that ultimately ceded the market to DoubleClick and othersMore
45. Jim Jorgensen – the amazing dot-com adventure of AllAdvantage
Jim Jorgensen is a prolific serial entrepreneur and co-founder of a well-known dot-com advertising startup called AllAdvantage. The company paid people to surf the web as part of a multi-level marketing program. Launched in April, 1999, without a product, it ultimately raised $175 million from blue-chip VCs and was on track to go public in…More
44. Shawn Riegsecker – getting to the Basis Technologies of Centro
Shawn started in digital publishing and worked at Real Media before founding Centro aka Basis Technologies in 2001 as a digital workflow solutionMore
43. Matt Spiegel – making a Resolution (Media) for search
Matt worked at ad network L90 and in DRTV before founding pioneering search agency Resolution Media in Chicago in 2003More