Recognized Mobile, Video and In-App Innovator to Lead Global Product and Engineering Teams
Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), which operates one of the largest advertising marketplaces in the world, today announced it has named Tom Kershaw to its global leadership team where he will serve as Chief Product & Engineering Officer, effective immediately.
Kershaw brings more than twenty-five years of relevant tech and advertising industry experience including more than a decade spent leading product development and engineering teams at global innovation leaders, including Google, where he most recently served as Director of Product Management for Google Ads and Commerce, based in China.
Mr. Kershaw’s addition to the team reflects Rubicon Project’s ongoing commitment to delivering the most innovative mobile, video and in-app technologies to both buyers and sellers in the advertising marketplace today. As Chief Product & Engineering Officer, Mr. Kershaw will assume responsibility for the oversight of all aspects of product development, platform strategy, product design, prioritization, and go-to-market planning, as well as oversight of Rubicon Project’s Engineering capabilities. He will be based at Rubicon Project’s headquarters in Los Angeles where he will directly report to Rubicon Project’s President, Gregory R. Raifman.
“At Rubicon Project, we operate with a core philosophy that great people innovate great products and great products attract great customers,” said Gregory R. Raifman, President of Rubicon Project. “Tom’s quarter of a century of leadership experience as a product innovator, his deep understanding of the digital advertising ecosystem and his extensive mobile and video background will help ensure we continue to deliver innovation to the market and long-term growth for our business.”
Kershaw has managed more than $500M in annual revenue businesses in technology-based markets for 15 consecutive years with a strong track record in earnings growth and profitability. Most recently, Kershaw served as Director of Product Management for Google Ads and Commerce (the senior-most Google product leader in APAC), directly responsible for the oversight of all Ads and Commerce product and engineering functions for the entire APAC region. Prior to that, Kershaw was the Product Management Director for Google Cloud Platform, where he led its successful expansion, focusing on key infrastructure development, including storage, database and analytics, network infrastructure, monitoring, and mobile application creation. Kershaw brings significant international experience, having launched and managed cloud, mobile, and voice services in 20 countries, including India, China, Thailand, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Nigeria.
“Rubicon Project is a company I have long admired, sitting at the exciting intersection of data, technology, the mobile economy and advertising,” said Tom Kershaw, Chief Product & Engineering Officer, Rubicon Project. “I’m thrilled to be joining such a dynamic team at such a transformative time for the industry. I am looking forward to advancing our mission to deliver innovative products that improve the advertising experience for publishers, app developers, advertisers, and, most importantly, for the billion consumers Rubicon Project’s marketplace reaches globally.”
Prior to his work at Google, Kershaw was at Ericsson/Telcordia as the General Manager of Interconnection Solutions, a business unit providing software and managed services solutions to mobile operators worldwide, which he grew from $65M to $150M in revenue in under three years during his tenure. He managed all facets of the business, including product management, software development, business development, operations, customer service and marketing. Before Ericsson, Kershaw held various product leadership and technology positions of increasing responsibility at VeriSign Inc, Clarent Corporation and Unisys, and was Chief Technical Officer at SS8 Networks, a telecom and internet services company.
In 2012 Kershaw was named one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Telecoms Executives” by Global Telecoms Business Magazine. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
About Rubicon Project
Founded in 2007, Rubicon Project’s mission is to keep the Internet free and open and fuel its growth by making it easy and safe to buy and sell advertising. Rubicon Project pioneered advertising automation technology to enable the world’s leading brands, content creators and application developers to trade and protect trillions of advertising requests each month and to improve the advertising experiences of consumers. Rubicon Project is a publicly traded company (NYSE: RUBI) headquartered in Los Angeles, California.