Former Head of Advertising for King Mark Charkin Appointed Chief Revenue Officer and Former Head of Operations at Shaw Media, Neil Houston Named Head of Operations
NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO – The Exchange Lab, the programmatic marketing intelligence and multi-platform media trading company, announced its expansion to the United States with offices in New York and San Francisco. The company also named Mark Charkin, former executive vice president of advertising and global business development for King (creators of Candy Crush Saga), as its new chief revenue officer responsible for scaling global revenue and overseeing commercial development.
The Exchange Lab also recently announced the appointment of Neil Houston as operations director in Canada. Houston has over 15 years of ad operations and digital media experience. Before joining The Exchange Lab, he was the head of advertising operations with Shaw Media where he set-up and managed their current digital ad systems infrastructure. A fixture in the Canadian digital media industry, Houston is the current co-chair of the IAB Ad Operations Committee.
With existing offices in London, Toronto and Istanbul, the expansion to the U.S. is part of a larger strategy to increase The Exchange Lab’s global footprint. The Exchange Lab already delivers active and ongoing digital campaigns for more than 250 clients in 29 markets worldwide. The company has created the largest consolidated media marketplace, delivering over 100 billion audience evaluations daily. Through its proprietary trading and intelligence platform it leverages data to find the right audience, at the right time, across digital channels at the most efficient price for marketers and brands. According to industry forecasts[1], programmatic buying is expected to triple in the next four years to $33 billion creating a concentrated demand that The Exchange Lab is poised to meet.
“Mark has an amazing track record scaling companies commercially, dramatically increasing ad revenues, and driving user acquisition for companies like King, Bebo, and Microsoft among others and will play a pivotal role in growing our business as we enter the U.S. market,” said James Aitken, CEO of The Exchange Lab. “This builds on Neil’s exciting appointment to director of operations in Canada. He is a fixture in the Canadian digital media scene and will bring his incredible experience from Shaw and industry knowledge from the IAB to build out operations in this market and contribute to the ongoing development of our market-leading technology.”
Charkin comments, “The Exchange Lab is truly unique in its programmatic and multi- platform approach to media campaigns, empowering marketers with the right tools and insights to find and communicate with their audience in an effective way that is unparalleled in the industry.” Charkin adds, “The advertising industry is undergoing tectonic shifts in the way marketers plan and buy media which presents an incredible market opportunity for The Exchange Lab, marketers and for me professionally.”
During Charkin’s tenure, King grew from 10 million to over 200 million monthly players, while advertising revenue grew over 1000 percent, cementing King’s position as the largest casual game group globally. Prior to King, Mark was vice president of global sales at Bebo, driving expansion into Asia, Europe and the U.S. He was part of the executive team that led Bebo’s record-breaking $850 million acquisition to AOL Time Warner. Charkin also served as an executive consultant at leading media companies Endemol and BrightRoll.
ABOUT THE EXCHANGE LAB
Founded in 2007 in the UK, The Exchange Lab is a privately held programmatic marketing intelligence and multi-platform media trading company with offices in the UK, Canada, the U.S. and Turkey. The Exchange Lab serves more than 250 clients across 29 markets worldwide. Its exclusive, multi-platform and multi-market access approach – in combination with its data- and experience-driven campaign analysis and optimization – allows The Exchange Lab to help agencies and advertisers achieve success in more cost-effective and efficient ways than any other company in the programmatic buying arena. To learn more, visit www.theexchangelab.com.
[1] MAGNA GLOBAL STUDY, October 2013
