Big Challenges Attract Great Talent

One thing I've learned in business is that talented people want to work on big challenges, not maintaining the status quo. That's why the best and brightest in science were drawn into the space program in the 1960s and why so many innovators have moved to Silicon Valley in recent decades to work on the new frontier of the digital medium.

In digital advertising, one of the biggest challenges today is fighting the criminals who are undermining our industry through fraud, piracy, and malware, and that challenge is also drawing some of the best talent to TAG and our partners across the industry who are working on those issues.

Today, I am delighted to share the news that Rachel Nyswander Thomas, one of the digital world's most astute and respected policy and compliance leaders, will be joining TAG as our Senior Vice President of Operations and Policy.

Rachel is currently Vice President of Advocacy and Accountability and Executive Director of the Data-Driven Marketing Institute at the DMA, where she has worked for years at the forefront of issues ranging from data privacy to location technologies, social media, behavioral targeting, and cybersecurity. In short, she knows our issues and our industry as well as anyone, and she has built outstanding relationships with both policymakers and corporate leaders to address those issues.

In her current role, Rachel has been deeply involved in the DMA's compliance program for online behavioral advertising, which has served as a model for effective industry self-regulation, and I know her experience will be invaluable to TAG as we roll out similar industry-wide compliance programs to set best practices for fighting fraud, piracy, malware, and lack of transparency.

Rachel also knows that the most important part of compliance is education, and she has worked closely with our colleagues across the industry to share information and best practices, another critical priority for TAG in coming months.

Please join me in welcoming Rachel to her new role at TAG, and feel free to reach out to her via her email after her official start date on October 12th. The growing TAG team looks forward to working with you to weed out the bad actors and clean up our industry.

Mike Zaneis