Criteo has appointed Jianchang “JC” Mao, a former head of Microsoft Advertising product and engineering, to its board as an independent director.
The appointment took effect October 28, according to Criteo’s October 29 release. The release also says Edmond Mesrobian is stepping down after nearly a decade of service.
Mao is a General Partner and Distinguished Fellow at Fellows Fund, an investment firm focused on AI-native companies. Before that he was Vice President of Engineering for Google Assistant. He spent nine years at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Microsoft Advertising Product and Engineering, where he led the organization responsible for Microsoft’s search and native advertising marketplace. Earlier he was Vice President of Advertising Sciences at Yahoo.
Rik van der Kooi, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Criteo, said: “As AI transforms commerce and advertising, the Board believes JC’s perspective will strengthen the Board”. Mao said: “Criteo’s differentiated commerce data, global client relationships and two decades of AI innovation provide a powerful foundation on which to build.”
Why it matters
Board changes rarely alter what a marketer buys, and the release does not mention products, pricing or partners. It does show which experience Criteo chose to add: search and advertising marketplace engineering, from a company that runs one. This is the third Criteo leadership item we have covered since August, after the promotion of its strategy chief to CFO and the departure of its product chief.
One original insight
In our reading, the useful signal for a buyer sits in the chairman’s wording, which ties the appointment to AI in commerce and advertising. A team evaluating commerce media vendors can use that as a prompt for its next review: ask Criteo which AI features in its roadmap are live in the account today and which are planned, and get the answer in writing.
Source: Criteo via PR Newswire
