Former Unruly Australia boss Lance Traore appointed local MD of adtech startup Illuma
Lance Traore, former Australian boss of News Corp-owned video marketplace Unruly has been appointed as the local country manager of UK-based adtech startup Illuma.
The appointment is the content optimisation service’s first hire outside the UK and is the spearhead of what Traore hopes will be an Asia-Pacific presence.
Illuma country manager, Lance Traore: “Looking to get local presence or strategic partners.”
“Our ambition is to cover the broader APAC region,” Traore told Mumbrella. “Initially the Sydney office will service the region but as we scale we’d be looking to get local presence or strategic partners.”
Illuma was founded 2013 with the former commercial director of Guardian Australia, Duncan Arthur, appointed as the company’s managing director last year.
After leaving The Guardian, Arthur moved on to Auckland to lead the KPEX programmatic alliance formed by Fairfax New Zealand, Mediaworks, TVNZ and NZME, before returning to the UK to form Illuma.
In a statement announcing the appointment, Arthur said: “Lance is the ideal person to develop and build illuma across the region, and we are delighted to have him join us.
“This is the first international market we have launched into – and we have prioritised our expansion into Australia and New Zealand as a mark of our belief in them as especially progressive media markets.”
The company, which Mumbrella understands currently employs eight people globally, claims a client roster which includes The Guardian, CNBC and Time Out.
Aimed at publishers and advertisers, illuma’s platform is a real-time recommendation system driven by machine learning algorithms to optimise programmatic advertising campaigns.
