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After Laying Foundation for TAG’s Growth, Linda Woolley Steps Down as CEO; IAB EVP of Public Policy Mike Zaneis Takes Over As Interim CEO
The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a U.S. advertising industry initiative to improve the digital ecosystem, today announced its inaugural board of directors, including 24 top executives from the world’s largest brand advertisers, online media companies, ad agencies, and advertising technology companies. Founding members of the TAG board include:
- Roger Adams, Chief Marketing Officer, USAA
- Dana Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Mondelez International
- Mark Baynes, Chief Marketing Officer, Keurig Green Mountain
- Debra Berman, Chief Marketing Officer, JCPenney
- Eduardo Conrado, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Motorola Solutions
- Trevor Fellows, Global Head of Media Sales, Wall Street Journal
- Nancy Hill, President and CEO, American Association of Advertising Agencies
- David Fischer, Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations, Facebook
- Jack Haber, Vice President, Global Advertising and Digital, Colgate-Palmolive
- Scott Hagedorn, CEO, Annalect (an Omnicom Media Group Company)
- Neil Johnston, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Digital Innovation, Cox Media Group
- Bill Koenigsberg, President, CEO, and Founder, Horizon Media
- Bob Liodice, President and CEO, Association of National Advertisers
- Bob Lord, President, AOL
- Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising Products, Google
- Rob Norman, Chief Digital Officer Global, GroupM
- Marc Pritchard, Global Brand Building Officer, Procter & Gamble
- Greg Raifman, President, Rubicon Project
- Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau
- Tod Sacerdoti, CEO and Founder, Brightroll (a division of Yahoo)
- Matt Seiler, Global CEO, IPG Mediabrands
- Vivek Shah, CEO, Ziff Davis
- Rishad Tobbacawalla, Chief Strategist, Publicis Groupe
- Deborah Wahl, Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald’s USA
“For digital marketing to grow to its full potential, we must work together as an industry to build a trustworthy and accountable digital supply chain,” said Marc Pritchard, Global Brand Building Officer, Procter & Gamble. “TAG is helping bring all of the stakeholders together to tackle difficult issues like fraud, digital piracy, ad-related malware, and lack of transparency, and I am delighted to join its board of directors as we undertake this important effort.”
“TAG is building momentum with cross-industry programs to set appropriate standards, validate good actors, and identify low quality sources of inventory,” said Vivek Shah, CEO, Ziff Davis. “We believe this all-star board can help TAG set a clear and successful agenda, while ensuring that TAG programs are quickly adopted across the industry.”
In addition to the new board, TAG also announced that Linda Woolley is stepping down as CEO and President, after helping the organisation build a solid foundation for success. Mike Zaneis, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, and General Counsel of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), will take over as interim CEO for TAG until a permanent replacement is found.
“We are grateful for Linda’s leadership in helping TAG build a foundation as the leading cross-industry effort to address ad fraud, malware, and IP piracy concerns in the digital advertising ecosystem,” said Zaneis in announcing the move. “We thank her for her support, vision, and experience in helping launch this vital programme, and we are excited to build on TAG’s success with new programmes we will launch over coming weeks to improve the digital supply chain.”
As CEO of TAG, Woolley helped the newly-established organisation launch an innovative cross-industry certification program against piracy, moved the existing Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG) initiative from IAB into TAG, recruited some of the industry’s most prominent leaders to serve on the TAG board, and initiated work on key initiatives for TAG to strengthen the digital advertising supply chain.
“We stood up the TAG programme, and announced a robust and innovative anti-piracy program,” said Woolley. “Work plans for addressing malware, fraud, and other issues are in place, and they are ready to be operationalised. I’m pleased that Mike will provide a seamless transition in carrying on the work of TAG as it moves forward.”
Prior to joining TAG, Woolley served for nearly six years in executive roles at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), where she most recently served as CEO and President, and before that as head of the association’s public policy office in Washington. Prior to that, Woolley spent more than 30 years in public affairs, government relations and policy via her own firm, LegisLaw Consulting, as well as ITT, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. House of Representatives.
TAG is an initiative created by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to attack ad-supported piracy, advertising fraud, malware, and other critical challenges in the digital communications supply chain.
