MediaMath CMO Joanna O’Connell will depart the company at the end of the month and return to Forrester, where she was a principal analyst for interactive marketing for three years.
Prior to MediaMath, O’Connell was an AdExchanger research analyst and held several ad tech roles at VivaKi and Razorfish in her 15-plus years in digital advertising.
“I’ve gotten a lot of practical experience in my time at MediaMath and I go back to the analyst world far wiser for it,” she told AdExchanger.
O’Connell will begin in early October and will spearhead Forrester’s digital advertising coverage, replacing its current programmatic analyst, Richard Joyce, who has since headed to Neustar, according to his LinkedIn profile.
O’Connell said the move was for personal reasons: “It had more to do with my personal passion, which is being a voice for the whole industry, rather than just being a voice for one company.”
Earlier this year, the nine-year-old MediaMath restructured to set the company up for growth in its next phase – though O’Connell said that’s not the reason for her leaving.
“It is not because of, but in spite of, MediaMath that I’m moving on,” she said. “My [departure] has nothing to do with company health, trajectory or my confidence in the senior leadership team.”
As MediaMath increased its enterprise contracts, it also deepened its technology infrastructure and data services.
“If you’re an advertiser and you wanted choice, we wanted to build to give you that choice,” O’Connell said.
