US-based digital advertising technology company OpenX Technologies has appointed Eric Rosenthal as general manager of OpenX Enterprise, the company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) division, OpenX revealed on Thursday.
Rosenthal was most recently vice president of national sales at internet company AOL, where he was also part of the team leading Publisher Partner Development for Pictela, the content marketing platform acquired by AOL in 2010. AOL’s corporate venturing fund, AOL Ventures, was among the backers for OpenX’s most recent funding round, which raised $20m in May 2011.
Before his stint at AOL, Rosenthal was vice president of sales for social media and mobile video platform Kit Digital (then known as Kyte), and senior sales director for DoubleClick, prior to its acquisition by Google, and worked for businesses such as telecom conglomerate Verizon, digital advertising operations company Solbright and content delivery network Panther CDN (later renamed CDNetworks).
OpenX offers both an online advertising exchange and an ad server that places ads on websites in exchange for a percentage of advertising revenue. The Enterprise division enables business clients to optimise all of their ad revenue channels in a single place, using a range of analysis-based features.
Rosenthal said: "I’m extremely excited to join OpenX and help publishers maximize their ad revenue through OpenX’s unique revenue serving vision. OpenX had an incredible 2011 with hundreds of publishers signing up to use OpenX Enterprise. It’s truly a great time to be joining the team and helping to scale the business."
OpenX has raised a total of more than $50m over four rounds, with AOL being joined in OpenX’s latest round by fellow corporate venturing units Mitsui Global Investment, SAP Ventures and Presidio Ventures, which represents Japan-based conglomerate Sumitomo. O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures is also among its backers, having participated in OpenX’s series A and B rounds.