CEO and Co-Founder at Kevel
Building Kevel (formerly Adzerk) into the leading API-based ad serving infrastructure platform, enabling retailers and publishers to launch custom ad networks — and anticipating the retail media revolution before it became mainstream.
Last updated Feb 27, 2026 by AI Enrichment
Ryan Joe is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kevel (formerly Adzerk), one of the AdTech industry's most consequential infrastructure companies. Since founding the company in 2010, Ryan has championed the idea that brands, retailers, and publishers should be able to build their own custom ad platforms on top of flexible, developer-friendly APIs rather than relying on walled-garden ad tech stacks. This vision positioned Kevel years ahead of the retail media boom, making it a go-to infrastructure layer for companies seeking to launch first-party advertising businesses quickly and compliantly. Under Ryan's leadership, Kevel rebranded from Adzerk to better reflect its evolved mission as a full-stack ad serving infrastructure provider. The company has powered ad platforms for notable clients including Ticketmaster, Yelp, and a growing roster of retailers and marketplaces building out retail media networks. Ryan has been a consistent voice in the industry arguing that control over ad serving infrastructure is a strategic asset, and that the future of advertising belongs to companies that own their data and their tech stack rather than renting access from dominant platforms. Ryan is an active thought leader in the AdTech space, speaking at industry events and contributing commentary on retail media, privacy-first advertising architecture, and the role of infrastructure in enabling the next generation of ad businesses. His work has helped smaller and mid-market companies access enterprise-grade ad serving capabilities that were previously only available to the largest players in the industry.
Adzerk (now Kevel) (2010-2020)