OpenX, The Intelligent SSP^TM, announced the appointment of Robert Horler as chief executive officer. Horler will lead OpenX into its next phase of growth, focusing on the evolution of programmatic advertising through buyer-direct relationships, AI-enabled solutions, and enterprise software offerings.

Horler joins OpenX at a time of momentum, with the company delivering 15 consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth. He brings three decades of leadership experience across media, advertising, and ad tech, including operational responsibility for organisations generating more than USD$1bn (£741.9m) in revenue. Throughout his career, Horler has worked closely with product and engineering teams to translate technical differentiation into commercial value and bring data-driven solutions to market.

"Rob is a proven leader who knows how to grow businesses while staying close to customers and understanding their evolving needs, including agentic optimisation," said Tim Cadogan, co-founder and chairman of the board, OpenX. "His experience delivering operational excellence, driving profitable growth, and building strong cultures makes him the right leader to move OpenX forward."

As AI reshapes how content is discovered and how media is bought, the technology that connects publishers and buyers is more important than ever. That moment calls for leadership that understands both sides of the ecosystem, and Horler’s experience makes him the right person to help OpenX make media work better for the people who run it and the people who experience it. That starts with helping partners build profitable revenue streams they fully control, through platforms like OpenXBuild^TM, which delivers an independent identity graph, 100% cloud-native infrastructure, and AI enablement, all built on trust.

"OpenX has earned something rare in this industry: the trust of the publishers and buyers it works with every day," said Robert Horler, CEO of OpenX. "I’ve sat on every side of the table, and with OpenXBuild, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver marketers both performance and ownership of data models while providing mutually beneficial monetisation to publishers, and I’m excited to work with this team to accelerate what comes next."

Prior to joining OpenX, Horler founded, built, and sold Diffiniti, a search and performance marketing agency, and served as CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network across the US and Northern Europe, where he led sustained growth in revenue and earnings. In his most recent roles as CEO and then board member at Whalar, a leading global creator and social agency acquired earlier this year by Accenture, he supported the founders in scaling their company from 40 to more than 300 employees as they shaped the creator economy and turned influencer marketing into a data-driven discipline.

Horler has also held senior roles on the publisher side, at The Financial Times and News Corp,  giving him firsthand perspective on the challenges publishers face in monetising their content and audiences.

Horler assumes the role of chief executive from Joshua Metzger, who served as interim CEO and will continue as OpenX’s chief legal officer.

"Josh’s most important contribution as acting CEO was to promote focus and execution across the organisation, and we are very thankful for his leadership," said Cadogan. "In returning to his role heading our legal strategy, Josh will be an important partner to Rob and a key contributor to the future direction of the company."

OpenX

OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform and a global leader in supply-side targeting, transparency, and sustainability. Through its 100% cloud-based tech stack, OpenX powers advertising across CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop...

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