Smaato Appoints Gerry Louw as CTO, Ryan Klinefelter as Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer to Expand Company’s Global Footprint Following Acquisition

Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announces today that Gerry Louw has been named Chief Technology Officer and Ryan Klinefelter has been promoted to Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer. The appointments come during a period of rapid growth and opportunity for Smaato, with the recent completion of its acquisition by Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group and continued innovation to their platform.

Gerry and Ryan will work jointly to accelerate Smaato’s continued strategy of building the leading end-to-end marketing technology solution that opens new frontiers and capabilities in global advertising. As CTO, Gerry will lead the systems engineering and technology strategy, including technology architecture and standards, risk management, and research and development into new areas like machine learning. As Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer, Ryan will leverage his expertise with acquisitions and strategic corporate finance activities to drive an aggressive growth strategy in new markets and for Smaato’s demand-side technologies.

“Both Gerry and Ryan have been instrumental in navigating Smaato through a critical inflection point in the business and our acquisition, and we have the utmost trust in their abilities to guide us in this new chapter of growth as we build out our platform and scale in new markets,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and cofounder of Smaato.

“Smaato has always been a technology-first company, and now with Spearhead, we are entering a new phase of expanding the capabilities and scope of our platform, with a particular emphasis on demand-side technologies that strengthen our leadership as the end-to-end mobile monetization solution,” said Gerry Louw.

“Today we have the runway to execute on a range of strategic initiatives over the coming years that will drive growth in new markets and deepen our ties in existing ones, and we’re also in a strong position to acquire the companies that will help get us there faster,” said Ryan Klinefelter.

Gerry is a seasoned technology entrepreneur whose career has spanned many verticals, including finance, advertising and media and entertainment. Through his prior executive leadership and engineering roles at RhythmOne, Agency.com/Designatory, World Wrestling Entertainment and VMS, Gerry has led startups of all sizes, and brought to market significant industry-first solutions and delivered triple-digit growth. Gerry has played a leading role in multiple IPOs and acquisitions, and played a key role in expediting the acquisition of Smaato by Spearhead.

Ryan has over 10-years of investment experience across digital media and principal investment platforms. Ryan joined Smaato in 2014 as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and played the lead strategic role in sourcing and undertaking due diligence in the Spearhead acquisition. Previously, he oversaw the corporate development function at RhythmOne Plc (LON: RTHM), where he led capital raises and sourced six acquisitions including Grab Media, Rhythm NewMedia, Lyfe Mobile and AdKarma.

About Smaato

Smaato is the leading global real-time mobile advertising platform, connecting 10,000+ advertisers – including 91 of the Top 100 Ad Age brands – with over 90,000 app developers and mobile web publishers. Smaato manages up to 10 billion mobile ad impressions daily and reaches over 1 billion unique mobile users monthly. Founded in 2005 by mobile pioneers Ragnar Kruse and Petra Vorsteher, Smaato has global headquarters in San Francisco, California, with additional regional headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, and Singapore. Learn more at www.smaato.com.

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