AdColony, a mobile video marketing platform company based in Los Angeles, has named Mike Owen as its first CRO, says Will Kassoy, the company’s CEO.
“It’s a new position we created in which he’s going to oversee two functional areas o f the company: brand sales and user acquisition,” Kassoy says. User acquisition, he says, refers to search and discovery for app developers. Owen will report directly to Kassoy.
AdColony currently has 35 employees, Kassoy says, adding that he plans to fill out the company’s marketing team in the near future. The company recently purchased office space in New York and San Francisco, he says. As of now, it’s unclear how many direct reports Owen will have, Kassoy says.
“We’re still figuring out how the company is going to scale and in what areas,” Kassoy says. “Immediately, Mike will be overseeing the sales, sales strategy and operations.” Having a CRO will help build out the teams more quickly, he says.
Owen was hired through a recruiter, Edward Koller at the Howard-Sloan-Koller Group, Kassoy says.
Owen was previously the senior manager of iAd at Apple Inc., a position he left in January for personal reasons, including a desire to spend more time with his wife and two-year-old daughter. Owen says he wanted to work for a smaller, more nascent company where he felt like he could make a bigger impact.
“We launched iAd, and I did it for about a year and half post-launch,” Owen says. “I was just yearning to get back to an earlier-stage company. For many of us, mobile marketing is still in its infancy.”
