Xandr today announced three key senior appointments to the team, the first under new ANZ managing director, Nicole Prior, as the company eyes expansion.
Mark Serhan is appointed to the newly created role of commercial director, Philip Coetzee becomes
associate director – product management, and Archana Ganesh becomes associate director – APAC
product support lead.
The appointments are part of a major expansion of Xandr’s leadership team across APAC and Prior
signals the company’s intention to grow in the market.
In his role as commercial director, Mark Serhan will be responsible for developing new business
relationships across Xandr’s broad suite of buy and sell-side technologies. Serhan has been with Xandr
since 2020, when he joined the business as a senior account director. He previously had senior roles at
AOL Platforms as head of publisher sales and operations platforms and Mi9 as head of operations.
As associate director – product management, Philip Coetzee will work with the Xandr Monetize product
team to research and develop prototype new features. Coetzee has also been with Xandr for several
years as a senior manager and senior associate director. He has previously worked with Telstra as a
senior business specialist.
Archana Ganesh’s promotion comes after her three years as Xandr’s senior manager – product support.
She joined the business in 2019 from Accenture Australia, where she was associate manager and has
also worked as an engineer at Ellucian. In her new role, she will be responsible for equipping and
developing the Product Support team members with skills to provide the best technical support and
guidance for clients on Xandr platform related issues.
“These recent promotions reflect our momentum as advertiser demand grows for programmatic solutions across the industry,” Prior said.
“Xandr has invested heavily in its senior leadership team across APAC to ensure it can offer the best service to its growing client base. This is a pivotal time for the business – we’re looking to strengthen our position as the leaders in premium video, particularly on the back of last year’s launch of Xandr Curate. This platform allows data owners and publishers to combine first-party assets to reach qualified inventory and audiences at scale. With the demise of third-party cookies, we’re expecting Xandr Curate to become critical for advertisers and media buyers looking for an effective, multi-platform strategy to reach the right customers.”
Commenting on his promotion, Serhan said he was looking forward to continuing to cement Xandr’s
position as a leader in premium video.
“I’m delighted to be taking on this new role at such an exciting time for Xandr. The advertising industry
is undergoing massive change and we’ve seen a substantial growth in premium video over the past few
years. Xandr has established itself as a premium Australian video marketplace and I look forward to
continuing to work with brands to enhance their offering.”
Conor McKeown and Taylor Seymour have also recently joined as senior account director and account
director respectively. McKeown and Seymour will play an integral role in ensuring Xandr’s existing
agency and marketer client base continue to drive outsized returns from their programmatic
investments.
Xandr’s growth across ANZ is also reflected in the open roles across both Commercial (account director
and senior account manager) and Services (solutions consulting and product support) functions.
The appointments are effective immediately.
