Digital Media Leadership Award honorees Bill Murray, The Weather Company, and Ali Mirian, Chiefgood, are flanked by AdMonsters Founder and CEO Bowen Dwelle (left) and VP, Content and Media Rob Beeler at Publisher Forum XXX in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo: Donna Alberico)
Honoring Digital Media Leadership Award Winners in Boulder, Colorado
AdMonsters announced two new winners of its Digital Media Leadership Awards last night at our 30th US Publisher Forum.
These winners are outstanding examples of what “ops” is really about – showing strategic vision, building great systems and maximizing profitability. They are known for their contributions not only to the AdMonsters community, but to digital strategists everywhere.
Please join us in celebrating the achievements of the Q3 AdMonsters Digital Media Leadership Awards of 2013:
- Ali Mirian, Founder, Chiefgood
- Bill Murray, VP of Advertiser Operations, The Weather Channel
AdMonsters created the Digital Media Leadership Awards to recognize leaders in the digital advertising community who have developed best practices and helped to develop the professional community around digital ad ops and technology. Our inaugural group of Digital Media Leaders were honored at the AdMonsters Publisher Forum in Sonoma in March of this year.
Ali Mirian has spent 14 years in ad tech, operations and consumer engagement and is currently the founder of Chiefgood, a nonprofit ad platform that gives voice to great causes by connecting charities with volunteer digital ad pros and free ad space. 
Prior to founding Chiefgood, Ali was the General Manager at Recyclebank, a venture-backed company that rewards green actions. There, he built the property’s ad products, and launched The Recyclebank Ecosystem, the first green platform that motivates people to live more sustainably.
Previously, Ali spent 5 years at IAC as the VP of Product & Technology for the Advertising division. In his role, Ali was in charge of IAC’s ad products and operations, audience targeting efforts, ad exchange strategy, and emerging technologies. Ali led the birth and growth of the IAC Network of its 60+ sites which was launched in July 2008 from a need to develop a corporate-wide advertising strategy.
From 1999 to 2007, Ali held various positions at WPP’s digital marketing company 24/7 Media, most recently as global product director for the media and technology divisions, where he was primarily responsible for rolling out new innovations for the company’s flagship ad serving, analytics, and ad products. In September of 2003, Ali led the launch of the industry’s first large scale behavioral targeting network at 24/7. Ali came to 24/7 Media in November 1999, working in ad operations, first as trafficker then as the director of yield and optimization.
Prior to his digital marketing days, Ali spent 6 years in the energy sector, working in power plants as project manager for large-scale energy construction projects. Ali earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island in Marketing.
Bill Murray, VP, Ad Ops and Programmatic Revenue, The Weather Company
As vice president of advertising operations and programmatic revenue for The Weather Company (Weather), Bill Murray oversees the digital ad operations group and programmatic efforts for the company’s online, mobile and tablet properties. These teams offer advertising solutions for the top-20 site weather.com and the company’s mobile product portfolio, which includes mobile Web, multimedia and messaging offerings, and download products such as the No. 1 weather application on all smartphones and tablets.
Prior to joining Weather in 2010, Murray was vice president of advertiser operations at AOL 
Advertising in Baltimore. In that position, he developed processes to improve effectiveness and advised teams on operational strategies for new products and advertisers. While at AOL Advertising, he also served in increasing roles within product management and delivery to ensure the successful setup, pricing and delivery of all advertising campaigns. While there, Murray received the Chairman’s Award in 2008, and served as an advisor on the company’s Standards of Business Conduct. Murray has worked in project and product management for more than a decade.
Murray also worked as a management consultant at RESI (Regional Economics Studies Institute) and as a project manager at Atlantech Solutions and at Judge Systems Integration, working in land use analysis and large-scale data conversion. Murray has a military background, having served as an infantry corporal in the United States Marine Corps for four years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Murray graduated with a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from Towson University in Maryland. In his spare time, Murray enjoys golf, surfing, swimming, hiking and fishing. He lives with his family in Atlanta.