Skai veteran promoted from Vice President of Sales, Americas and Interim Managing Director, Asia Pacific
San Francisco (January 9, 2014)–Skai (www.Kenshoo.com), the global leader in premium digital marketing technology, today announced the appointment of Gary Nafus as Managing Director, Americas. Nafus boasts more than 15 years of enterprise-class software sales experience and has been serving as Vice President of Sales and Interim Managing Director, Asia Pacific at Skai since March, 2013.
Prior to Skai, Nafus was Vice President Sales at Oracle Corporation in North America. Previously, he worked for PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards as a Regional Sales Director. In his new role, Nafus will oversee and manage Skai’s expansion, strategy and client delivery to ensure continued success across key markets including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. The Americas region is currently experiencing strong growth for Skai with the 2013 holiday season delivering record growth in online retail. Skai clients include nearly 40% of the 50 largest North American internet retailers (per IR Top 500) and the Skai U.S. retail index increased ad spend 19% year-over-year during the peak shopping season.
“Skai’s industry leading position is a reflection of its commitment to product excellence and client satisfaction,” said Nafus. “With digital marketing flourishing in the Americas, Skai has an opportunity to help savvy marketers thrive in the two most important sectors, search and social. I’m excited to be working with Skai’s teams to better serve agencies and brands in these regions.”
Recently named the sole leader in a Social Ad Platforms evaluation by independent research firm, Forrester Research Inc. in The Forrester Wave™: Social Advertising Platforms, Q4 2013, Skai is the only digital marketing technology provider named the sole leader in two such evaluations after previously being named the sole leader in The Forrester Wave, Bid Management Platforms, Q4 2012.
Nafus will oversee efforts in the Americas designed to help marketers make the most of their advertising budgets through industry-leading innovations such as Skai’s Halogen Technology for predictive analytics, ActiveCluster for algorithmic bidding, Demand Driven Campaigns for social advertising optimization and SmartPath for dynamic cross-channel attribution.
“Gary has already proven himself an invaluable asset to the Skai team and was the perfect fit to oversee Skai’s expansion efforts in the Americas,” said Ted Krantz, SVP Revenue for Skai. “With rapid growth in the search and social advertising arenas, Gary’s direction will play a key role in determining Skai’s approach for these markets to drive client adoption and success.”
About Skai
Skai is a digital marketing technology company that engineers premium solutions for search marketing, social media and online advertising. Brands, agencies and developers use Skai Search™, Skai Social™, Skai Local™ and Skai SmartPath™ to direct more than $25 billion in annual client sales revenue. Skai is the only Facebook strategic Preferred Marketing Developer with native API solutions for ads across Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Twitter, Facebook, and Facebook Exchange. Skai powers campaigns in more than 190 countries for nearly half of the Fortune 50 and all 10 top global ad agency networks. Skai clients include CareerBuilder, Expedia, Facebook, KAYAK, Havas Media, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, Resolution Media, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Tesco, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Skai has 18 international locations and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance, and Tenaya Capital. Please visit www.Kenshoo.com for more information.
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