Mike Zaneis, the interim CEO of an industry group formed last year to coordinate industry’s response to fraud and other supply chain issues, will take the reins permanently.
Zaneis stepped in in March to oversee the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) after the sudden exit of founding CEO Linda Woolley.
He will leave his role as EVP of public policy and general counsel for the IAB once the organization finds a replacement.
“It was challenge I was eager to take on and a wonderful opportunity to galvanize the industry and solve serious problems,” Zaneis told AdExchanger.
Those problems, he said, are fraud, piracy and the rest of the dark underbelly that threatens digital advertising.
The CEOs of the IAB, 4As and ANA elected Zaneis as CEO without an executive search, Zaneis said. He is the group’s second leader after Woolley. TAG placed the former Direct Marketing Association chief at the helm in November, shortly after the group formed, and she served for five months.
Zaneis is leading a full-time team of three – along with separate working groups for fraud, malware and anti-piracy, and help from engineers in the IAB Technology Lab.
One of TAG’s projects, the Fraud Threat List, is still in proof-of-concept stage but will roll out more broadly in the third quarter. And the TAG anti-piracy working group just had its first meeting in New York a few weeks ago, Zaneis added.
TAG sees progress on the education front, too, but there’s work to be done.
“Educating a $50 billion industry takes time,” he said.
