WideOrbit Hires Brian Burdick for Digital and Programmatic

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit announced the hiring of Brian Burdick as executive vice president of Digital and Programmatic. Based in Seattle, Burdick will be responsible for leading WideOrbit’s digital and programmatic business globally, which includes WO Central, the company’s online marketplace for buying and selling media, and recently acquired digital solutions companies Fivia, Abacast and Admeta.

WideOrbit has been investing heavily in expanding its digital offering to help major media clients grow their digital business, and Burdick will play a key role in this strategic endeavor. Burdick will oversee all sales, business development, operations and product direction for WideOrbit’s digital and programmatic business globally. Burdick’s immediate focus will include ensuring a smooth transition for the recently acquired companies, synchronizing the integration and development of the digital and programmatic solution platforms, increasing the sales, development and support teams across the business unit and ensuring continued revenue growth of the new subsidiaries and the digital and programmatic business, overall.

“I am very excited to be joining WideOrbit at this pivotal time,” Burdick said. “WideOrbit’s position managing more than $30 billion in ad spending annually provides an enormous opportunity to help broadcasters and publishers transition to future methods of content distribution. WideOrbit is uniquely positioned to help premium content distributors span digital and traditional linear television, cable and radio advertising regardless of direct sold or programmatic sales methods.”

Burdick is a highly respected expert in digital ad technology who has held key executive roles in several successful ad tech companies and been responsible for many significant industry innovations. He has product development experience in multiple large-scale online ad serving systems and associated machine learning based ranking systems. Burdick was a founding member of Microsoft AdCenter, the second-largest paid search marketplace, which he designed and developed. Burdick was chief technology officer at AdECN, where he and his team pioneered the first Real-Time Bidding Ad Exchange. Burdick has held senior executive positions with other industry leaders including chief technology officer at PrecisionDemand (acquired by AOL) where he developed advanced methods of targeting and ROI measurement for television advertising, and senior vice president of Technology at Specific Media, which was the largest independent online advertising network under Burdick’s leadership.

“Brian is a true visionary who has pioneered some of the most significant digital ad technologies in the industry,” said Eric R. Mathewson, Founder and CEO of WideOrbit. “We could not have found a more accomplished and well respected professional to lead our digital and programmatic strategy. WideOrbit has spent more than $50 million this year acquiring and developing digital advertising transaction technology. Brian has the capability and drive to bring all of these technology assets together for the benefit of WideOrbit clients.”