• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, October 27, 2016

Ad-tech firm AppNexus on Thursday announced C-Suite promotions and appointments. Ryan Christensen was promoted to chief operations officer and Ben John was appointed to chief technology officer, a newly created position. Michele Weber was named global head of marketing, and Tom Shields will assume the role of chief strategy officer.

John, formerly SVP, engineering, will be responsible for AppNexus’ global technology organization as CTO, including architecture, product development, platform innovation, engineering, and technology operations. Previously, he worked for Sun Microsystems and Experian.

Christensen was previously SVP & GM,in AppNexus' publisher technology group. In his new role,  he’ll oversee strategy & operations, product and services. Prior to joining AppNexus, he was general manager of ad product at Zynga.

Weber, a former SAP marketing executive, will lead the company’s corporate, product and channel marketing functions.

Shields was the co-founder and first CEO of Yieldex, a digital advertising and analytics company that AppNexus acquired in April 2015. He also serves on the IAB Tech Lab Executive Committee.

AppNexus signed global partnerships with News Corp and LinkedIn earlier this year. Earlier this month, the company integrated its publisher and advertiser business units into a single technology and service platform. AppNexus is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering.