IAB Tech Lab Council Meeting

Ben is Director, Data & Ad Effectiveness within IAB’s Data Center of Excellence. He leads IAB projects within its automation, identity, measurement/attribution groups, and works with leading ad technologists, agencies and publishers to identify and navigate some of the most pressing opportunities and challenges within these verticals. By developing best practices, research, white papers, and thought leadership in collaboration with IAB members, Ben helps improve and facilitate digital media buying and selling via automated tools, software and data.

Prior to joining the IAB, Ben was Associate Director, Digital Trading at GroupM where he oversaw programmatic strategy, measurement / optimization, ad operations, and private marketplace relationships across Nestlé 85 brand US portfolio. In this capacity he was responsible for building and “productizing” the Nestlé Trade Desk (NTD), an independent programmatic buying unit developed specifically to service Nestle brands. Prior to his work on Nestlé, Ben held positions at both Maxus Global and Universal McCann where he helped lead the development of programmatic and measurement/attribution strategies for large global brands including MasterCard, Barclays, Harvard Business School, and Welch’s.

Ben received a B.S. in Communications and Entrepreneurship from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Emma Fenlon leads the exchange quality team for Yahoo. Her team focuses on protecting Yahoo’s clients from digital ad fraud and malware attacks. Emma began her career at Millennial Media, a mobile digital advertising company acquired by AOL & Verizon.

Contributor to Tech Lab and Head of Product at iubenda, which helps over 60,000 clients across hundreds of thousands of websites and apps to manage consent and comply with privacy laws.

With more than a decade of experience in the ad tech industry, Rob Hazan leads omnichannel product strategy, development, and delivery at Index Exchange.

Prior to joining Index, Rob held roles across the buy and sell sides of the programmatic ecosystem at Google and AppNexus (now Xandr). While at Google, Rob served as a Product Manager, responsible for publisher tagging, ads latency, and ensuring compliance with data regulation (e.g. GDPR and CCPA).

Earlier in his career, Rob worked as a software engineer and business analyst at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. He holds a degree in Computer Science and Finance from Princeton University. Today, he lives in the Boston area with his wife, two kids, and their dog.

Anthony Katsur is a media technology veteran with more than twenty-five years of executive leadership and technical experience at innovative technology companies in the digital media industry.

Most recently, Anthony was SVP, Strategy, Operations and Corporate Development at Nexstar Media Group, Inc., the largest local broadcaster in the United States. Anthony was responsible for overseeing strategy, technology platforms and corporate development across Nexstar’s portfolio of digital assets.

Prior to Nexstar, Anthony served as President of Sonobi, where he implemented their product and go to market strategy around people-based marketing. Anthony recruited, and led highly effective teams while driving strategic partnerships with leading media companies, agencies and brands.

Prior to Sonobi, Anthony held global leadership roles at Rubicon Project as EVP of Business Operations and General Manager of Buyer Cloud. He also held global executive roles at MediaMath and Maxifier, where he served as CEO. Earlier in his career, he joined DoubleClick via the acquisition of NetGravity where he lead multiple engineering divisions and also fulfilled several product leadership and general management roles.

Anthony is an active participant at industry conferences, speaking about the latest ends in advertising at the National Association of Broadcasters, AdAge’s Brand Summit, Advertising Week, Broadcasting & Cable, AdMonsters and GABBCON. He has been quoted on industry trends and provided thought leadership in The Wall Street Journal, AdAge, Adweek, AdExchanger, MediaPost, Econsultancy and Digiday, among others.

Michael Palmer is originally from a small town in upstate New York. As an undergraduate at Vassar College he majored in history and political science and holds advanced degrees from Cornell, Harvard and the Stern School of Business. Prior to settling into a career in software development, Michael had previously worked a wide variety of jobs, including being a college lecturer, a wilderness guide and a factory shift manager. After working for several years as a software product manager for a clinical trial software, Michael helped found a small business intelligence company, where he ran operations. After selling and successfully exiting this company, Michael joined Xaxis and then GroupM where he has worked for the last five years in several technology-related roles. He is currently GroupM’s Global VP for Emerging Technologies where he is active in guiding innovation strategy. He has served co-chair of the IAB Tech Lab’s Blockchain Working Group for two years and currently represents GroupM & WPP on the IAB Tech Lab’s Board of Directors. Michael is also an active member of the Tech Lab’s project Rearc for identity and he regularly represents GroupM and WPP’s interests in technical matters with the 4As and the W3C.

As the VP and GM of Marketing Solutions for T-Mobile Mike Peralta is responsible for driving T-Mobile’s targeted advertising, measurements, and insights business. Mike has over 20 years of extensive domestic and international experience in technology and media. He has served in a variety of executive roles across publishing and ad technology in companies like Criteo, AudienceScience, MediaMath, AOL, Advertising.com, and most recently as Global CRO at Future PLC.

He holds a BS degree in Environmental and Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has done graduate work in Management and Public Policy from New York University. In addition, he serves as an advisory board member to a number of start-ups and VC funds and did a stint as an Assistant Dean for a semester at Sea Voyages. 

Jason Jed Raqueno is a Senior Director, Privacy & Data Protection, at IAB Tech Lab.
He oversees emerging privacy technologies and working groups, such as the Global Privacy Platform, where he works side-by-side with ad tech partners & members to advance privacy in the digital ad ecosystem.

Jason has 10+ years of experience in data privacy, specializing in agile & innovative digital tech. Prior to joining IAB Tech Lab, Jason led Digital & Ad Media Privacy for one of Canada’s largest retailers.

Throughout his career, he’s built “agile privacy” into digital e-commerce products including mobile apps & websites, seller marketplaces and customer identity access management across digital retail, grocery, health care, banking, and customer loyalty. He also led data privacy for personalized ads, where he was responsible for ensuring privacy in audience targeting & ad serving platforms, digital ad campaigns, and customized data projects with ad partners.

Jason has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, specializing in profiling and ethics. He has an Honors BA Degree in Law & Society and an Honors Diploma in Security Administration. He’s also completed privacy certifications – CIPM and CIPP/C.

As a whole, Jason brings valuable strategic insight into connecting the dots across privacy, digital and data for the ad ecosystem. With his extensive privacy expertise and leadership, he’ll be vital in driving privacy forward for the digital advertising industry.

Dr. Neal Richter has worked in the software industry since 1996 and since 1999 focused on data science, ML and AI applications. Currently, he’s Director of Bidding, Exchange, Analytics and Modeling (BEAM) at Amazon Ads. Most recently he served as Chief Scientist at SpotX, a streaming CTV ad platform. Prior to that he was Chief Technical Officer at Rakuten Marketing, as well as CTO and Chief Scientist at the Rubicon Project.

Neal also serves as Chairperson of the IAB TechLab, the technical standards organization of ad tech. He has been a contributor to the development of the OpenRTB protocol, Ads.txt, Ads.cert, and Sellers.json and other associated standards.

Neal grew up in a log cabin in a rural area of Montana and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Montana State University as well as an MS degree from Utah State University. He has authored and published 16 academic papers and 10+ Patents.

When not sifting through data or designing high scale systems learning algorithms, Neal enjoys fly fishing, skiing and living in the Rockies in Salt Lake City Utah with his wife, four teenagers and furry dog.

Jill Wittkopp is Senior Director of Management at the IAB Tech Lab, a global consortium for technical standards in the digital advertising industry. Prior to joining the IAB Tech Lab, Jill worked on the buy side of programmatic advertising with companies like MyBuys, Magnetic and Rakuten. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, Dearborn and lives in San Francisco, California.