Josh Koran

Josh Koran is one of the foundational architects of programmatic advertising, best known as a co-founder of Admeld, the supply-side platform that Google acquired in 2011 for approximately $400 million. That acquisition was a landmark moment in the consolidation of the ad exchange ecosystem, and Koran's work at Admeld helped define how publishers would monetize inventory through real-time bidding for years to come. His technical and strategic contributions to yield optimization and auction mechanics remain deeply influential in how modern programmatic infrastructure operates. Following the Admeld acquisition, Koran joined Google where he served as VP of Product, working within the company's advertising platforms division. In that role he was positioned at the intersection of Google's vast publisher monetization tools and the evolving programmatic marketplace, giving him rare visibility into both the buy and sell sides of the ecosystem at scale. His tenure at Google deepened his expertise in algorithmic decision-making, auction theory, and the product challenges of operating ad technology at global scale. Koran subsequently joined Chalice Custom Algorithms as Chief Strategy Officer, a company focused on enabling advertisers and agencies to build and deploy custom bidding algorithms without relying on the black-box optimization of walled gardens. This move reflects his long-standing belief in transparency and publisher/advertiser control within programmatic systems. At Chalice, he applies decades of hands-on experience in ad exchange architecture to help clients reclaim algorithmic autonomy in an increasingly opaque media buying environment.

• Co-founded Admeld, acquired by Google in 2011 for approximately $400 million
• Served as VP of Product at Google overseeing major advertising platform products post-Admeld acquisition
• Helped pioneer real-time bidding infrastructure and SSP technology that shaped modern programmatic advertising