• by Laurie Sullivan , July 24, 2025

Criteo wants to move its business toward an AI-assisted, agentic commerce platform, so it created the role of senior vice president, head of product, performance media, and hired an entrepreneur to complete the task.

Wilfried Schobeiri’s ambitions and experience will help him move into the role and manage the process, leading Criteo’s global efforts to accelerate the evolution of its performance media offerings into a full-funnel, cross-channel, self-service global platform for marketers.

As far back as high school, Schobeiri's background -- which is marked by technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit -- aligns with Criteo’s vision.

“I spent my high school years in College Station, Texas, after living in Germany,” he told MediaPost. “Like many kids of immigrant parents, I was expected to pursue something prestigious -- ideally medicine, maybe even brain surgery.”

But he took a different path and started consulting in software development at age 14. He found it fun and challenging, and it became an effective way to fund his high-school hobbies.

That early start in technology eventually led him to leave college and build his own businesses -- expertise that will help Schobeiri move Criteo toward AI-assisted, agentic commerce, while reporting to Todd Parsons, chief product officer at Criteo.

His arrival signals a renewed focus on leveraging advanced technologies to optimize commerce outcomes and drive growth across global markets.

With more than 20 years leading global tech teams, Schobeiri brings an expertise in programmatic advertising and a strong foundation in data-driven strategies from companies like Ogury, a global ad-tech company serving as CTO, and Banyan, a fintech and data infrastructure company.

Earlier in his career, Schobeiri served as CTO and CPO at MediaMath, where he helped shape the company’s global product and technology strategy.

While he also has played a key role in the development of the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework, he has remained an advisor to several ad-tech and data companies, including Ocient, Ergatta, and Truthset.

His experience during high school shaped how Schobeiri leads today.

“I consider myself a commercially minded-technology leader, or a technology-minded business leader, depending on the day,” he said. “Starting in startups and consulting from such a young age gave me a deep understanding of how to balance innovation with business impact.”

It’s a mindset he carries into his work at Criteo, where the company is building solutions that he calls “technically sophisticated and commercially valuable.”

When asked to cite a fictional, superhero, or character he relates to, Schobeiri said “Mal Reynolds from Firefly” because “he’s independent, pragmatic, and has a healthy distrust of authority.”

Schobeiri said Reynolds does not have an interest in flashy solutions or grand ideals that ignore reality. He instead focuses on what works, leads with honesty, and earns loyalty through trust and transparency rather than hierarchy. His dry sense of humor and tendency to call things as he sees them feels familiar.

“I have no spaceship, unfortunately, but otherwise, I’m a solid match, Schobeiri said.

As for Schobeiri’s biggest challenge this year at Criteo, he says “marketers today are up against increasing complexity — managing more than seven platforms just to run campaigns, often without a clear way to measure performance across channels or decide how to allocate budgets between upper- and lower-funnel tactics.”

He adds that the shopper journey is also more fragmented, making it difficult to find and reach the right audiences. So, Criteo’s priority this year is to build AI-driven commerce solutions that simplify this.

“We want to make it easier for marketers to activate campaigns across channels, measure outcomes more effectively, and clearly see the impact of their media investments,” he said.