• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, August 29, 2016

Ad-tech firm AppNexus on Monday announced it had appointed Gabriel Weintraub chief economist.

Weintraub’s job is to create new efficiencies in AppNexus’ pricing structures and to devise marketplace practices that strengthen the mutual interest between buyers and sellers on the company’s unified  platform. He will report to Catherine Williams, AppNexus’ chief data scientist.

In addition to his role at AppNexus, Weintraub holds a tenured appointment at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches graduate courses in business analytics, game theory, and online markets.

He specializes in the economics and optimization of marketplaces -- especially auction markets.

“All digital marketplaces, whether they sell hotel rooms and flights, securities, custom artwork, or advertising, need to think critically about how to improve auction design and pricing structure, and how to strengthen the mutuality of interest between buyers and sellers,” stated Brian O’Kelley, CEO of AppNexus.

“All marketplace companies can benefit from having both economists and data scientists strategically designing their systems. We’ve seen it with Spotify, Zillow, Airbnb, and Uber, among others,” Weintraub stated.