Tokyo, Japan– September 10 2019 —Premium digital technology company, PubMatic, announced today that Michiteru Hirose, formerly Senior Director Customer Success, Japan, has been promoted to the position of Japan Country Manager. In this role he will lead the commercial and account management teams to grow the business on both the supply and demand side.
Reporting into Singapore-based Jason Barnes, PubMatic’s Chief Revenue Officer, APAC, Hirose will look to develop opportunities particularly around mobile and video, the two key drivers of digital advertising growth.
Hirose joined PubMatic in 2014 as Publisher Development Manager and was promoted in 2016 to Customer Success Director. Prior to PubMatic, he held roles as Customer Success Director at Marin Software, Media and Ad Sales Manager at Seesaa and Search Engine Marketing consultant at irep.
“Hirose has been playing an increasingly important role in the success of the Japan business. Having performed the dual roles of publisher development and customer success, recently he has taken on more leadership responsibilities.” said Barnes. “His commitment to the business, experience and leadership qualities have made him the right person to lead our Japan business in this rapidly growing market.”
PubMatic has been operating in Japan since 2014 and it is a key market for the business. In the last 12 months it has seen a 33% increase in platform spend, driven by growing demand for its OpenWrap header bidding solution. It is also trialling its new mobile SDK with Japanese publishers to drive the growth of in-app advertising. In addition to promoting Hirose, the business is hiring two additional heads to support the needs of its growing client base.
Hirose commented “I am grateful and excited to be given the opportunity to lead the Japanese team. With Japan being the third largest market globally in terms of media ad spend, PubMatic is in a great position to take advantage of the opportunities programmatic advertising is bringing and develop the potential of digital advertising in this market.”