Kiwi Premium Ad Exchange (KPEX) announced today that former Wellingtonian Simon Birkenhead has been appointed as its new ceo. KPEX is a joint partnership between NZME, Stuff, Mediaworks and TVNZ.
Birkenhead’s extensive digital background includes time at Google, where he was the first hire into its global agencies team – growing this to into a multi-billion dollar business.
After leaving Google, Birkenhead was commercial director for Telefónica’s mobile advertising business across Europe and Latin America, supporting an international sales and marketing organization of over 60 people across nine countries.
He was then appointed ceo for the launch of Axonix, a mobile ad exchange spun out of Telefónica. Most recently he led digital benchmarking business L2 in Europe.
With a strong reputation as an entrepreneurial business leader, Birkenhead is an expert in digital strategy, marketing and e-commerce. He has over 20 years’ experience working internationally within both large enterprises and smaller startups.
Birkenhead says he’s thrilled to be joining KPEX “at such an exciting time in its growth”.
“Entrepreneurial business leader Birkenhead is an expert in digital strategy, marketing and e-commerce, working internationally within both large enterprises and smaller startups.”
“Having run various ad tech and digital marketing businesses in Europe, I’m very aware of both the benefits and pitfalls of programmatically-served advertising, and I’m looking forward to using my experience to grow the value KPEX creates for the brands, publishers and consumers it serves,” he said.
Included in Birkenhead’s resume are a number of notable achievements: he has launched three new digital marketing businesses in Europe, received two Exceptional Contribution Awards from Google, and was the winner of 3M’s top global Marketing Excellence Award.
KPEX chair Sarah Judkins said: “We are delighted with the calibre and experience that Simon will bring to KPEX and we look forward to working with him.”
Birkenhead will commence his role on Wednesday 1 August 1.
About KPEX
Kiwi Premium Ad Exchange (KPEX) is a joint venture between Stuff, NZME, TVNZ and Mediaworks – providing real time bidding (RTB) access to NZ’s largest, most diverse group of premium content publishers. Reaching over 80% of NZ’s population on a daily basis, KPEX provides advertisers with a high quality, trusted and brand safe source of digital inventory coupled with market-leading audience targeting capabilities.
Share this Post
