Thank You for Everything

By Joshua Koran, Head of Innovation Labs, Zeta

After over 2 years at Zeta (and almost 4 years including my time at Sizmek), it comes with bittersweet emotions to announce my departure. I am moving on to continue pursuing my passion advocating for a free and open web that is supported by responsible addressable media.

My Zeta adventure began with the Sizmek acquisition in May 2019. I am extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years. In my time here, I’ve contributed to the company’s growth in innovative products, multiple acquisition integrations, becoming a public company, and what I consider to be impactful on a macro level, helping evangelize the best path for the ecosystem to pursue as we proceed toward the future of addressability.

Just a few short months after I joined, one of the first of many surprise announcements shook the web ecosystem that one of the largest browsers would no longer support digital markets’ reliance on the foundational technology standards known as “cookies.” As we all know, this was the beginning of a frenzy that has since set the industry searching for improved solutions to continue to allow small organizations to rely on supply chain partners, which require interoperable data that today is often stored in cookies.

At Zeta, we have been prominent in our positioning to maintain a free and open marketplace and ensure that marketers and publishers continue to have choice over the partners they work with. We have been leaders in educating marketers around the world, co-founded a new trade body, Marketers for an Open Web, and advocated the importance of the responsible use of interoperable data to support digital markets regulators worldwide.

This important work will continue as Zeta advocates to give their people, publishers, and marketers the best opportunities to communicate and continue to navigate the open web.

As the regulator scrutiny of internet gatekeeper conduct continues to increase in the European region, where regulators are further ahead in balancing people’s important privacy rights with the collective social rights of open marketplaces and freedom of expression, I will continue pursuing my passion to advocate for balanced solutions, rather than those that favor only the largest established players.

All in all, I am very grateful for my time at Zeta and working alongside the incredibly talented teams across the organization that are helping marketers and publishers attract, retain and grow relationships with people.

Thank you to everyone for your partnership, your friendship, and for everything we’ve done together.

Sincerely,
Joshua Koran