Commentary

Laura Desmond's Full Plate Just Got Fuller

Laura Desmond, the former Publicis Groupe Chief Revenue Officer, has been pretty busy since she left the Groupe at the end of 2016. She just added a big new role to her ongoing responsibilities. Desmond was named chairperson of the board of Finnish social/mobile ad platform Smartly.io.

It was announced today that Providence Equity Partners has acquired a majority stake in the firm for an estimated $220 million.

Desmond has been an operating partner at Providence since 2018 and is also the founder-CEO of Eagle Vista Partners, a strategic advisory and investment firm focused on marketing and technology.

She is also lead director at digital measurement firm DoubleVerify, in addition to sitting on the boards of Adobe and Syniverse Technologies. Providence acquired a majority stake in DoubleVerify in 2017.

“Over the past several years, I’ve seen marketing and advertising technology evolve, with an ever-growing set of companies understanding how to partner with the entire digital ad ecosystem to create value,” said Desmond.

She added that Smartly.io, now backed by Providence, will grow its footprint in the U.S. and globally, as well as expand to other platforms.

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