Following yesterday's news that the IAB has named former Southern Cross Austereo chief digital officer Vijay Solanki as its new CEO, we caught up with Solanki and IAB chairperson, Ed Harrison.
Speaking to AdNews, Solanki said he was excited about being a digital marketer at the helm of the IAB. He said following a 90-day review process starting in August, whereby he will primarily meet and listen to all stakeholders, he will then unveil how he sees the IAB shaping up for the future.
“My plan is to start the role and focus on getting out and listening to the stakeholders,” he says.
“There's so much potential in digital and something that is immediately clear is that the industry needs to collaborate.”
He says that as a marketer, he has strong empathy with that group, so will be very in touch with what the advertisers and brands have to say – as well as all publishers, agencies and other industry bodies.
Prior to working with SCA, Solanki was the senior director for global digital innovation at Philips. He has also held senior roles with Unilever, BP, lastminute.com, and was the global launch marketing director for Shazam.
Harrison, who is also the CEO at Yahoo7, says the decision to hire Solanki was approved by a recruitment panel of three people, and one third-party person.
“There was a huge level of interest in the role and we saw an enormous range of interesting backgrounds from publishers to media agencies and marketers,” Harrison says.
Compared to the recruitment process three years ago, Harrison says a new notable trend was the amount of more senior individuals that were applying for the job – something he said was no doubt a reflection of how increasingly relevant the industry body had become to all media owners.
“We didn't set out looking for a marketer,” he adds. “We were very open-minded but after the conversation with Solanki it was clear that he was a great fit. He had a very different perspective from not only previous CEOs, but indeed our board members too.”
Despite recent news about media transparency plaguing the industry, and increasing pressure on industry bodies – with some in the industry becoming disillusioned with varying media organisations, Harrison says he feels the CEO job is no harder or easier than ever before.
He added the IAB has been consistently well-funded and has strong support from its members and board.
Harrison, who says the IAB is watching closely what is happening overseas at the IAB in the UK and US, agreed that Solanki, who is a “strong communicator” with a huge passion for digital marketing, will at first need to spend time talking to the board and stakeholders to work out where best to spend his time and focus, before setting the agenda for 2016 and beyond.
In March AdNews reported that IAB CEO Alice Manners would step down from the organisation in May as her three year tenure comes to an end. Former IAB CEO Paul Fisher, who steered the ship before current Manners, was brought back in to work at the organisation as a consultant, as it started the recruitment process to fill her spot.
In May, media and advertising foundation UnLtd named Fisher as its new CEO.
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