Celebrating Our Digital Media Leadership Awards Recipients

Congratulations to the AdMonsters Digital Media Leadership Awards Winners!

Last night at the AdMonsters Publisher Forum in Sonoma we announced the winners of our new awards, the AdMonsters Digital Media Leadership Awards.

We created the awards to recognize outstanding leaders in the digital advertising community – those who help shape the industry by working diligently to share best practices with others and to lead by example.

“AdMonsters felt it was necessary to formally recognize the true leaders in online advertising operations, technology and strategy. These individuals are outstanding examples of what “ops” is really about – showing strategic vision, building great systems and maximizing profitability,” said Rob Beeler, AdMonster’s Vice President of Content & Media. “This inaugural class of Monsters are known for their contributions not only to the AdMonsters community, but to digital strategists everywhere. We’re thrilled to honor their achievements.”

Drumroll please for the first winners of the 2013 AdMonsters Digital Media Leadership Awards. Congratulations to:

Adrian D’Souza, Director, Media Services, YouTube
Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Operations, NBCUniversal
Wendy Mazzoni, Vice President, Global Operations & Systems, Glam Media
Joey Trotz, Vice President of Advertising Technology Strategy, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

AdMonsters will be presenting a series of Digital Media Leadership Awards throughout the year at our upcoming U.S. conferences. At Publisher Forums, winners will be selected from the publishing community. At OPS conferences, winners will be selected from the overall digital advertising community. See our conference page for a complete list of where and when future Digital Media Leadership Award recipients will be announced.

Bowen Dwelle, CEO, AdMonsters; Adrian D’Souza, Director, Media Services, You Tube; Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Operations, NBCUniversal; Wendy Mazzoni, Vice President, Global Operations & Systems, Glam Media; Rob Beeler, VP, Content & Media, AdMonsters; Joey Trotz, Vice President of Advertising Technology Strategy, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Photo Credit: Donna Alberico Photography

For more about our winners, please check out their bios:

Adrian D’Souza

As Director of Media Services for YouTube, Adrian is responsible for all post-buy campaign execution at YouTube in the Americas as well as execution of all advertising and marketing programs. He is also responsible for shared services like partners support, inventory management and certifying new technologies, partners and vendors. He recently stepped down as Co-Chair of the IAB’s Ad Operations Council, a group that is focused on streamlining the supply chain for digital media thereby making it easier for traditional advertisers to do business online.

Prior to this, he was Vice President of Advertising Operations at CNET Networks and was responsible for evaluating, defining and implementing new ad opportunities and technologies across CNET Network properties. Prior to joining CNET Networks, D’Souza served as the Director of Product Management at Engage Media. He oversaw the product strategy for B2B and B2C products. Prior to that, he managed a worldwide product line of enterprise management hardware and software products for American Power Conversion Corp. D’Souza has a MBA from Virginia Tech and an Engineering Degree from the University of Poona, India.

Steven Gold

Steven is the VP, Sales Operations at NBCUniversal where he spent the last 6+ years responsible for and managing teams tasked with campaign fulfillment, inventory management, ad data analytics, audience data management, and ad product development & integration across NBC’s broad Entertainment & Sports portfolios including BravoTV, NBC.com, NBCSports, NBCOlympics & Telemundo to name a few.

In his current role, Steven was the driver to establish early audience data strategies & created a priority tag management platform to enable data management called PixelMan. (Multiple start-ups have sprouted up since then with this as their primary function). He also established and grew a Yield Management business from $0 to a multi-million dollar business which, in 2011, became the NBCUniversal Audience Platform, a combination of both open RTB and private exchange activity built on audience scaled from the sizable NBCU portfolio of premium content.

Prior to NBCUniversal, Steven spent 10 years at iVillage.com, a leading women’s web property where he led ad operations, pricing & sales planning. At iVillage, Steven held nearly every ad operations role in the organization starting from an intern in 1996 until leading the department as Vice President in 2006.

He currently is a member of the IAB Ad Operations Advisory Board. He has held positions on various other advisory boards and committees within Ad Monsters, the IAB and the OPA over the years. Steven holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University

Wendy Mazzoni

Wendy is Vice President of Global Operations & Systems at Glam Media, a top 10 comScore property which receives over 296 million unique visitors each month. She is currently responsible for worldwide revenue delivery (ad operations & media solutions), systems development and business intelligence. In her tenure at Glam Media, Wendy has leveraged her technical and management experience in the media industry to design and launch a custom order and product management system, improve transaction times between systems to reduce DSOs and develop Glam’s business intelligence department.

Formerly Vice President of Operations for Fox Interactive Media, she led the operations, advertising, creative services and infrastructure teams supporting the sites of MySpace, IGN, AskMen, American Idol, RottenTomatoes, Fox.com and GameSpy. She is credited for revising IGN’s ad strategy (improving inventory tracking and forecasting) and developing a method of using secondary ad units as overflow throttles to prevent under-deliveries.

Wendy has over 12 years experience in online operations and production and has managed 8 enterprise system launches (content management, purchasing and order management). She entered the online media space in 1999, joining Snowball Network and serving as site producer for HighSchoolAlumni, IGN and ChickClick sites.

Prior to joining Snowball, she spent three years in South Korea teaching university English, developing original courses and serving as advisor for the university’s English magazine. She has also authored and edited three series of English as a second language (ESL) teacher manuals. Wendy has a BS in Biology, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Joey Trotz

As the Vice President of Advertising Technology Strategy for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.). Joey works on the policies, strategies and vision where technology and monetization intersect. He provides guidance to clients across Turner, including heads of sales and brand owners across the company. He also serves as co-chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Video Committee, supporting the development of the VAST, VPAID and VMAP standards as well as other initiatives and is an active member of the IAB Ad Operations Advisory Board and Media Ratings Council Internet Committee.

Previously at Turner, Joey held roles managing enterprise-wide digital advertising technology and product development. He has also directed product development for interactive television and emerging platforms for Turner websites and cable networks. Joey began his career at Turner in executive leadership roles in event coverage, program management and advertising operations for CNN/SI and later SI.com, the website of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Earlier in his career, Joey was a photojournalist and digital media executive in the newspaper industry. He makes his home in Atlanta’s Grant Park with his wife Amy, a French horn player with the Atlanta Ballet and other area orchestras, and his sons, seven-year-old Sam and five-year-old Noah.