OpenX Fortifies Leadership to Defend Publisher Revenue Streams

NEW YORK, NY – January 14, 2026 – In a strategic move to bolster its publisher-facing operations, omnichannel supply-side platform (SSP) OpenX Technologies, Inc. has announced a significant investment in its global supply infrastructure, headlined by two key leadership appointments. The company has hired Akhil Savani, a nine-year veteran of demand-side giant The Trade Desk, as its new Vice President of Publisher Development, and has promoted longtime executive Rebecca Bonell to Regional Vice President of Publisher Development for the Americas.

While corporate appointments are routine, these moves signal a deliberate and aggressive strategy by OpenX to position itself as an indispensable partner for digital publishers navigating an increasingly hostile environment. As content creators grapple with existential threats from AI-driven search, large language models (LLMs), and the continued erosion of traditional tracking methods, OpenX is reinforcing its ranks with seasoned experts tasked with securing publisher revenue and carving out a larger share of the lucrative Connected TV (CTV) market.

A Strategic Response to a Shifting Landscape

The digital publishing world is at a critical inflection point. The rise of zero-click search, where platforms like Google use AI to provide direct answers on results pages, threatens to siphon off the organic traffic that has long been the lifeblood of online media. Industry analyses suggest that a significant percentage of searches no longer result in a click-through to a publisher's website, directly impacting page views and ad impressions. This trend is being accelerated by the integration of sophisticated LLMs, which are trained on publisher content—often without compensation—and can summarize or regenerate information, further disincentivizing users from visiting the original source.

Compounding these challenges is the ongoing privacy revolution, most notably the impending deprecation of third-party cookies in major web browsers. This shift is forcing a fundamental rebuild of the ad tech ecosystem, placing immense pressure on publishers to develop robust first-party data strategies and find new ways to prove the value of their audiences to advertisers. OpenX's investment in its publisher development team is a direct response to this complex reality.

“Publishers today need more than just better monetization from an SSP — they need strategic partners who can help them navigate complexity, unlock new revenue, and do it in a way that is easy to implement,” said Tyler Romasco, Executive Vice President of Demand Platforms at OpenX, in the company's announcement. The appointments of Savani and Bonell are designed to provide precisely that strategic counsel, helping publishers innovate their data and revenue strategies to counteract these market headwinds.

The Demand-Side Advantage in a Supply-Side World

The hiring of Akhil Savani is particularly noteworthy. His nearly decade-long tenure at The Trade Desk, one of the world's largest demand-side platforms (DSPs), provides OpenX with a unique and powerful perspective from the buyer's side of the programmatic auction. Savani’s experience leading global inventory partnerships gives him deep insight into what advertisers and agencies value most when purchasing ad space: transparency, data richness, audience quality, and performance.

This demand-side expertise is a critical asset for an SSP. It enables OpenX to better advise its publisher partners on how to package, price, and present their inventory to maximize its appeal and command premium rates. By understanding the intricacies of advertiser demand, Savani is positioned to help publishers articulate the value of their unique audiences and content, especially in a post-cookie world where first-party data is king. His background on both sides of the auction provides a holistic view necessary for creating what the industry calls 'fair value exchanges,' where revenue is not lost to inefficiency or opaque supply chains.

“I’ve partnered with OpenX for years and have always admired the company’s principled approach to transparency and quality,” said Savani. “I’m excited to join during such an exciting time of growth and to help scale new strategic partnerships across high-growth environments such as CTV and mobile.”

Complementing Savani's external perspective is the promotion of Rebecca Bonell, a nearly ten-year OpenX veteran. Her elevation to Regional Vice President signifies the company's commitment to nurturing deep, long-term publisher relationships built on trust. In her new role, Bonell will focus on expanding OpenX's supply footprint across the Americas and strengthening ties with its most strategic partners.

"At OpenX, quality, trust, and autonomy truly matter. We focus on building meaningful publisher partnerships, a strategy that powers true impact, rather than chasing volume at all costs," Bonell stated. Her focus on a globally-minded team underscores the company’s strategy to deliver consistent, high-quality service across regions.

The CTV Battleground and the Push for Quality

A central focus of this expanded leadership team will be the hyper-competitive Connected TV advertising market. As audiences continue to shift from linear TV to streaming services, ad dollars have followed, creating a 'gold rush' mentality among ad tech platforms. OpenX is competing with established SSPs like Magnite and PubMatic, which have already made significant inroads in CTV. To gain ground, OpenX is doubling down on its strategy of curating high-quality, direct supply.

The new team's mandate includes strengthening OpenX’s CTV offering by forging direct partnerships with leading global content owners, device manufacturers (OEMs), and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs). The goal is to provide advertisers with differentiated, premium demand that they cannot find elsewhere, thereby increasing monetization for CTV publishers. This focus on quality over sheer volume is designed to create a more efficient and transparent marketplace, which is highly attractive to premium advertisers looking for brand-safe environments and measurable results in the living room.

By helping publishers navigate the technical and commercial complexities of CTV monetization, OpenX aims to solidify its position as a key player in this critical growth sector. The combined expertise of Savani and Bonell is intended to accelerate this push, ensuring that OpenX can effectively compete for and service the needs of the world’s largest and most sophisticated video publishers.

OpenX's commitment extends beyond personnel to its core infrastructure, which is built on a 100% cloud-based tech stack designed for scalability and efficiency. This foundation is crucial for handling the massive data volumes and real-time demands of omnichannel advertising, especially in video and CTV. Furthermore, the company has established itself as a leader in sustainability, becoming the first ad tech company to be certified as CarbonNeutral™ and to have its Net-Zero targets verified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). In a market where advertisers and publishers are increasingly scrutinizing the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials of their partners, this commitment to sustainability serves as another key differentiator, building trust and strengthening its value proposition.

Ultimately, the recent investments in talent and infrastructure represent a comprehensive effort by OpenX to future-proof its business and that of its publisher partners. By addressing the industry's most pressing challenges head-on and arming publishers with the expertise to navigate them, the company is making a clear statement about its ambition to be more than just a technology vendor, but a strategic ally in the ongoing quest for sustainable digital monetization.