billups Hires and Promotes for Leadership Team

Independent out-of-home (OOH) agency billups has boosted its leadership team with the hiring of Ranganathan Somanathan for the new role of Chief Global Growth Officer, and promotions for Jaime Byrdak, Dave Williams and Tony Stoering.

New York-based billups describes its mission as 'making Out-of-Home as automated and attributable as the most effective digital ads'. The firm combines patented scientific targeting, Out-of-Home measurement and an AI-powered recommendation engine to help advertisers, agencies and media owners optimise their promotion and monetization of the medium. During 2024 it acquired Brussels-based independent OOH agency Outsight; expanded to ANZ with the acquisition of New Zealand OOH agency Billie Media and to the UK via the buying of Mediabridge Global; strengthened its global and APAC leadership by hiring Claudia Valderrama and Ben Milne; and launched attention metrics gauging how well traditional and digital OOH units stand out in their environments.

Somanathan, who is based in Singapore, worked previously as CEO and Advisor at Publicis Media Malaysia and Singapore, and CEO at Omnicom Media Group Malaysia and Singapore. In his new role he will collaborate across departments including client development, client services, product development and product marketing to increase client utilization of the firm's services and drive its global market share.

Chicago-based Byrdak is promoted to CEO, North America, having led OOH media teams for the past twenty years including six at billups, most recently as Head of Media. Previously, and previously as MD of the central region at WPP's Kinetic. Williams, based in London, becomes Global Head of Commercial & Investment having joined the company in 2022 to launch commercial operations in EMEA. Stoering, who is based in Minneapolis, becomes Global Head of Client Development - billups bought his OOH agency Heed in 2015.

The company, which now employs more than 300 professionals operating across North America, EMEA, APAC and ANZ, says the strengthened leadership structure positions it to advance its global expansion strategy through a combination of build, buy and organic growth initiatives. Global CEO David Krupp comments: '2025 is going to be an incredible year. We will continue to invest in our technology, products, and our people to achieve Ben Billups' vision of 'delivering amazing' and moving the world for our clients. These appointments reflect our commitment to expanding our best-in-class team, furthering our positioning of out-of-home as a key awareness and transaction driver for clients in the digital economy'.

Web site: www.billups.com .