• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, August 2, 2013

The Rubicon Project this week announced 10 new additions to its senior management team, adding executives to the engineering, data, administrative and operational strategy, legal, financial, and business development teams.

Among the new hires is Mona Yousry, who will serve as senior vice president, semantic grid computing. She does not have the most common background for ad tech, holding a Ph.D. in statistical algorithms and mathematics from Ohio State University. She was previously a technology executive at AT&T.

RTM Daily was able to ask Yousry some questions about her unique background, her new role, and whether or not the ad industry (specifically the ad tech industry) could see more people with her type of background.

First, RTM Daily asked her to define "semantic grid computing." She said that she will lead the Semantic Grid Computing team at Rubicon, which works on applying "algorithms and methods to utilize user data to create value in the digital advertising space."

Yousry also believes that while her background is not common in this space, "it will be." She believes it fits well at Rubicon because of the amount of big data the company works with. "...[A] combination of statistics, mathematics, and cognitive science/machine learning is essential to provide good tools for gaining understanding of big data," she said.

Yousry was also able to cut through the industry jargon - "statistical algorithms," "machine learning optimization," etc. - to spell out what she is really looking to accomplish at Rubicon. "If I had to emphasize one word it would be relevancy. There is no value in presenting impressions that are not relevant to the user." She added, "We seek to develop improved methods for creating relevancy."

The other hires were: Tim McQuillen, chief knowledge officer; David Peterson, senior vice president, technology; Matt Karatz, chief of staff and head of strategic operations; Tiffany Chelsvig, vice president, people; Michael Adair, senior vice president, corporate development;  David Day, chief accounting officer and corporate controller; Jim Arth, senior vice president, financial planning and analysis; Natalie Pechacek, senior vice president, tax; Brian Copple, general counsel.