Anthony Katsur Joins IAB Tech Lab As New CEO

Katsur will bring renewed energy to enhanced global standards and code development at a pivotal moment in digital marketing.

Today, IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, announced that respected industry veteran Anthony Katsur will join as Chief Executive Officer. Katsur will assume the role on August 2, 2021. Katsur succeeds Dennis Buchheim, who led the organization from 2017 to May 2021.

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“Anthony joins IAB Tech Lab at an incredibly important moment, and I can’t imagine a stronger CEO to lead IAB Tech Lab into the future,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “He has made outstanding contributions over the past years as a contributor to IAB and IAB Tech Lab focused on driving excellence in video and mobile. He brings exactly the right expertise to lead the industry in developing the specifications and standards required to maintain a vibrant and open internet.”

Tech Lab is a global organization that boasts over 700 member organizations around the world. Critical standards developed by Tech Lab include ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) and sellers.json to support brand safety, the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Compliance Framework, and OpenRTB (Real-time Bidding), which underpins programmatic buying and selling.

Most recently, Tech Lab has led the global technical efforts to provide solutions to replace third-party cookies via Project Rearc. Tech Lab operates the technical working group of the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM), which brings together business, technical, and policy stakeholders to develop addressability solutions that safeguard privacy, improve the consumer experience, and protect ad-supported digital content and services.

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Before joining IAB Tech Lab as CEO, Katsur was Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy, Corporate Development and Operations at Nexstar, Inc, America’s largest local television and media company. His leadership helped their digital platforms deliver record growth and audience engagement in 2020, ranking #1 in local news for every month of the year.

“The industry is experiencing simultaneous watershed moments in the areas of OTT & Advanced TV, fraud, identity, and consumer privacy. Tech Lab is at the forefront of all these issues,” said Katsur. “We’ll accelerate the development of tech frameworks the industry needs to support a free and open internet around the world. While our mission to ensure useful standards remains vital, we fully expect to deliver code upon which the ecosystem can innovate.”

“Having worked with Anthony on many technical projects and industry issues, I am confident he will lead IAB Tech Lab into the future. His deep curiosity and gift for zeroing in on the right questions are fantastic assets,” said Neal Richter, Director of Science, Amazon Advertising and Chairman of the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors. “We’re all excited about the energy he’ll bring to the job, and I’m confident he’ll be exactly the kind of leader we need now.”

Prior to Nexstar, Katsur, served as President of Sonobi, where he implemented strategy, recruited, and led highly effective teams, and executed business with leading agencies, brands, and media companies. He has also held global technology and business leadership roles at Rubicon Project, MediaMath, and Maxifier, where he served as CEO. Earlier in his career, he joined DoubleClick via the acquisition of NetGravity and quickly ascended to lead multiple product, operations, and engineering divisions.

Katsur added, “I look at this role as an opportunity to give back to an industry that has given me so much. I look forward to working with the Tech Lab board, member companies, and the entire industry across the globe to drive the industry forward and make the most of the rebound that we all hope is ahead.”

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