PALO ALTO, Calif. — LG Ads, a leader in cross-screen media and measurement solutions for convergent TV, today announced the appointment of Raghu Kodige as chief executive officer. Kodige is a co-founder of LG Ads (formerly Alphonso) and has served as its chief product officer since 2013. Ashish Chordia, a co-founder who has served as the company’s only chief executive officer until now, will move into the role of executive chairman.
“This is an exciting and pivotal time for LG Ads, and I could not be more confident and optimistic with Raghu taking the helm as we tackle the multi-billion-dollar opportunity ahead of us”
LG Ads also introduced Serge Matta as president. Matta formerly served as chief executive officer of comScore and ICX Media and was president of location data services company GroundTruth. Ashish Baldua, who has served as the company’s chief growth officer since 2017, will assume the role of chief product officer.
Ed Lee, director of LG webOS ad business development, said, “The speed with which LG Ads has not only established a strong foothold, but is demonstrating leadership in the industry, is a strong testament to Mr. Chordia’s leadership, drive and vision. We thank him for his ongoing commitment to our success as executive chairman, and we are equally pleased and fortunate to welcome Mr. Kodige, Mr. Matta, and Mr. Baldua into their new roles.”
“This is an exciting and pivotal time for LG Ads, and I could not be more confident and optimistic with Raghu taking the helm as we tackle the multi-billion-dollar opportunity ahead of us,” said Chordia. “Raghu has spent the past nine years at my side building this company, first as a bootstrapped startup and now as part of one of the greatest electronics companies in the world. With such a passionate and experienced leader like Serge Matta coming on board as president to support him, along with a strong and savvy bench of executives, the future is ours to grasp.”
Kodige said, “I’m equally humbled and exuberant stepping up as CEO. It is truly a unique opportunity to grow a hard-fought position of leadership to even greater heights. With the talent and experience around me here, there is nothing we cannot achieve on behalf of our customers. We are wasting no time in combining the best of our proven technology for cross-screen media and measurement with all that LG Electronics has to offer in the form of smart TVs, a dominant TV platform and premium inventory for connecting brands to audiences at massive scale.”
These changes to LG Ads’ leadership team come at a time of rapid expansion for the company and explosive growth in the connected TV and cross-screen advertising industry as a whole. According to research from Wall Street financial services firm BMO Capital Markets, spending on connected TV (CTV) advertising will reach nearly $21 billion this year, and nearly $100 billion by 2030. These forecasts are for CTV ad sales alone, and do not include advertisers’ significant spend allocated to cross-screen ads on digital devices where TV audience data is used for targeting – a primary line of business for LG Ads.
Following a majority investment from LG Electronics earlier this year, LG Ads became the exclusive provider of LG ad inventory and LG smart TV audience data, which powers deterministic targeting across more than 20 million households and 200 million connected devices in the U.S.
About LG Ads
LG Ads is a leader in media and measurement solutions for convergent TV, helping brands find hard-to-get unduplicated reach at optimal frequency across the fragmented TV landscape, and maximize return on ad spend. The company brings together LG’s years of experience in delivering premium home entertainment products to consumers worldwide, with big TV audience data and Video AI designed to connect brands with audiences across all screens, and understand resulting business outcomes. Our current OEM partners include LG, Sharp, Hisense, Toshiba, Seiki, Skyworth, TiVo, and Sling Media, with over 10 more OEMs committed to joining us in 2021. We are growing fast globally, and we are hiring! Contact us at info@lgads.tv.
