Digital media has lost a great talent with the passing of Curt Hecht, Global Chief Revenue Officer at The Weather Company, at the age of 47. A programmatic advertising pioneer, Hecht spent 24 years in a variety of roles Publicis Groupe before hopping the fence to the supply side.
Before leaving Publicis, he served as CEO of the VivaKi Nerve Center and oversaw the creation of the Audience on Demand (AOD) agency trading desk. Even before that, he served as the Chief Digital Officer for StarcomMediaVest.
At Weather, he was part of the publisher’s major programmatic push that came in 2012 with new CEO David Kenny, another media agency veteran and former colleague of Hecht’s. In a letter to Weather Company staff, Kenny mentioned that Hecht had encouraged him to take stewardship of the company before jumping on board himself later that year.
“Curt and I both dream big, but he is the one who could turn the dream into a reality,” Kenny wrote. “When daily pressures created chaos and drama, Curt would prioritize and keep us focused on the most important and critical matters.”
Hecht was known for his recruiting acumen, helping build the WeatherFX that focused on monetizing the company’s incredible data assets. Soon after his arrival, Weather’s programmatic prowess was on display during Hurricane Sandy, when the revenue flowing into the company’s desktop and mobile programmatic peaked.
“We are focused on leveraging weather as a platform and a network to connect the one-third of the economy that is heavily impacted by the weather,” Hecht told me in an interview in 2012.
Beyond his major career accomplishments, Hecht was a funny guy, an avid cyclist and a great resource for the AdMonsters community. He supplied me with terrific insight on a variety of ad tech matters, and I was always eager to see him speak at industry conferences. At our 2012 OPS conference, he lit up our closing panel on the future of digital advertising.
Hecht also chatted with AdMonsters Publisher Rob Beeler about the future of programmatic for an informational hangout by Google.
Hecht is survived by his wife Dorothy Rotatori, and his two daughters Peggy, 13, and Kaki, 9. Donations in his memory can be made to his children’s education fund. The digital media world feels emptier without him.