Specific Media Appoints New Executives to Lead Technology and Product Efforts
Fabrizio Blanco appointed Chief Technology Officer and Jason Knapp named EVP of Product
15 February 2011 – Specific Media, Europe’s largest independent digital media platform, today announced the appointments of Fabrizio Blanco as chief technology officer and Jason Knapp as executive vice president of product.
Blanco brings more than 15 years of engineering and systems architecture experience to Specific Media. He previously served as CTO at Strategic Data Corp (SDC), which was acquired by Fox Audience Network (FAN) in 2007 and later acquired by the Rubicon Project. During his tenure as SVP of engineering and chief architect at FAN, Blanco developed the world’s largest display ad serving and optimisation technology. He holds multiple pending patents, several of which he co-authored with newly appointed Specific Media Product EVP Jason Knapp, including the industry’s first implementation of real-time bidding technology.
A co-founder of SDC, following its acquisition Knapp served as vice president of monetisation products at FAN. There he led a number of critical initiatives including product managing the creation of FAN and Myspace’s ad serving platform. In his new role at Specific Media, Knapp leads the company’s ongoing product innovation efforts. Knapp brings 16 years of Internet industry experience, including 11 years focused on ad monetisation, serving and optimisation. He also aided in launching several technology ventures and provided strategic consulting for top technology companies such as Intel, HP and Microsoft.
"As Specific Media continues to aggressively expand and drive global innovation across media channels, we attract the brightest minds in the industry to our executive ranks,” said Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and CEO of Specific Media. “We are pleased to have two seasoned industry veterans at the helm, leading the effort to drive the company’s technology forward, and we are confident that Fabrizio and Jason’s tremendous contributions will make an immediate and long-term impact on the organisation.”
About Specific MediaSpecific Media, Europe’s largest independent digital media platform, leads the industry with ground-breaking technology which enables advertisers to target consumers throughout Northern and Western Europe and North America based on demographics, behaviours, geographic locations and the contextual relevance of websites visited. Specific Media's Premium Network reaches more than 33 million consumers each month in the UK, more than 100 million across Europe and over 260 million consumers globally. The combination of reach and proprietary targeting technologies allows Specific Media to create highly customised audience segments for advertisers. Since 1999, Specific Media has been enabling advertisers to build relationships with their target audiences across the top consumer branded publishers. Visit www.specificmedia.co.uk
Media contact:
Andrew Farmer and Zoe Penn
Band & Brown Communications
Specificmedia@bbpr.com
020 3451 9400
