Bidstack appoints AdColony executive to Advisory Board
, the native in-game advertising group, on Monday appointed Mr. Will Kassoy to its Advisory Board.
Will was previously CEO of AdColony, a video advertising platform reaching over one billion consumers globally. He lead the company from pre-revenue to its eventual US$350 million sale to Opera Limited in 2014.
Before AdColony he was Senior Vice President of Global Brand Management at Activision Blizzard for 13 years, growing franchises such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. He also spent five years at The Walt Disney Company, helping launch Disney Interactive and some of its games such as Aladdin, Lion King and Toy Story.
He is currently President of Los Angeles-based Omaze, a growth stage, for profit platform, that offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences to raise funds and awareness for critical causes.
Shares in Bidstack shot up 9.32% to 19.95p each following the announcement
The company told investors that Mr. Will Kassoy has “extensive knowledge of both sides of Bidstack's business model”.
James Draper, CEO of Bidstack, commented, "We have been keen for Will to join us for quite some time. He's the only person we've come across who has C suite experience in both a AAA game publisher and in the adtech space.”
“His experience of leading a company from startup to exit, and his public company experience following the integration of AdColony into Opera, also perfectly fits our journey. Adcolony created in-app reward video, a completely new market which has exploded and defined the way casual games can promote their offering.”
"At Activision Blizzard Will led the pitch to Tony Hawk, which created one of the most recognised video game sporting franchises ever created. He then grew Guitar Hero into a global phenomenon. In addition, under Will's guidance, Call of Duty was grown into one of the world's most revered video games.”
James Draper said that the company is “continuing to build a pool of available talent” from the video game and adtech communities, after previous appointments of Pete Beeney of Spotify, Joel Livesey of The Trade Desk and Mike Hayes of Nintendo.
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