Last updated on June 13th, 2024
New York, New York-based CitrusAd, a self-serve, e-commerce advertising platform, has ramped up an entrenched team to deliver ROI for retailers, brands and their agencies. Three of the most recently hired include Mike Pisula, formerly with Xaxis, and two former Criteo executives, Colleen Cassin and Christina Fonseca. They follow Dana Concepcion, SVP of media sales at CitrusAd, whose move from Criteo was announced last month.
Pisula joins CitrusAd in a global role as SVP of product and engineering. He referred to himself as a plumber, as he explained he will help connect the technology CitrusAd has built to other technologies such as existing retailer assets or opportunities in partner expansion. In his role, he will help data scientists do their job better by building new tools and products that will tap into the data and resources that are available.
“CitrusAd is leaning into new consumer-centric advertising models not building work-arounds,” Pisula said. “By being fully engaged in the privacy ways of the future, CitrusAd technology will set a new bar and that will be the standard that companies strive for.”
In 2020, Pisula represented GroupM as a part of the W3C’s Improving Web Advertising Business Group, which was tasked with creating and evaluating internet standards proposals in a post-cookie world. As part of the business group, he was able to inform advertisers and agencies on the impact to how they plan, target and measure digital campaigns. This directly led to brands being better prepared for a new digital advertising landscape. In previous roles, Pisula worked in the financial data industry, as a UNIX analyst, started and sold a successful web analytics firm to 24/7 Real Media, worked at WPP for 18 years and most recently was the managing partner for technology and partnerships at Xaxis.
Cassin and Fonseca are added to CitrusAd’s growing media sales team and both will report into Concepcion’s team. Cassin is appointed as sales director for the growing CitrusAd network. Prior to joining CitrusAd, Cassin was at Criteo for more than four years, where she managed a variety of large accounts and agencies within CPG, including categories such as beauty, health, home, baby, grocery and pet care. Her expertise really resided in the health and beauty business, building some of the largest partnerships in those categories. Cassin will be leading the charge on building out the home, health and beauty business at CitrusAd.
“CitrusAd has taken weeks out of the process with self-serve campaigns that can be live in minutes. Their flexibility is extraordinary, which speaks to their great leadership and a great technology that is both innovative and transparent. People follow great leaders, and that is why I look forward to helping brands scale their e-commerce presence through CitrusAd. The opportunity here is for no brand to be left behind,” Cassin said.
Fonseca also joins CitrusAd’s media sales team, as sales director. Fonseca leaves Criteo where she was a sales lead managing a variety of different accounts within CPG including grocery, pet, health and beauty accounts. She has more than eight years of advertising experience across account management and sales roles at Viacom and Vibrant Media. She will be focused on selling brands and building a sales team within pet care as well as categories outside of grocery as CitrusAd onboards new retailers in other categories.
“I have a passion for retail media. CitrusAd’s upper funnel placement opportunities set them apart from other players in the market. I am impressed with how they have grown and how adaptable they are to market needs. Brands have an opportunity to have a holistic e-commerce approach beyond search, and I look forward to elevating what brands are doing,” said Fonseca.
“We are delighted to attract high caliber executives to our team,” said David Haase, CitrusAd‘s chief development and revenue officer. “We are on track to have a mammoth 2021. By providing a comprehensive, future-proofed platform along with a best-in-class team, CitrusAd will fit the needs of the entire retail media ecosystem, allowing brands and retailers to talk with shoppers in a privacy compliant, consumer friendly way.”
