Fort Worth’s Koddi Announces Appointments to Executive Leadership

With the appointments, the ad tech pioneer aims to deliver "even more improvements and innovations in the areas our customers and partners are prioritizing," President Nicholas Ward says.

Koddi, a Fort Worth-based pioneer in advertising technology, has appointed three executives to lead key areas of the business.

Nanda Lella has been named chief technology officer, Harsh Jiandani has been named chief commercial officer, and Trevor Narayan has been named chief of staff.

“Commerce media is quickly evolving towards more personalized, privacy-focused advertising both onsite and offsite,” Koddi President Nicholas Ward said in a statement. “The brands we work with are prioritizing advertiser and user experiences, a solid foundation with fast and scalable infrastructure, and the ability to maximize new partnerships and opportunities quickly. With the addition of these senior executives to Koddi, we can deliver even more improvements and innovations in the areas our customers and partners are prioritizing while ensuring they receive unmatched value.”

The company said the appointments bring a wealth of experience to the company and will contribute to expanding on its enterprise-grade capabilities and teams.

Lella has more than 20 years of experience and recently served as director of engineering at Meta where he was responsible for leading the team launching and building Meta’s privacy and regulation framework and tools across their Ads business.

Before that, Lella was a senior engineering leader at Amazon where he was responsible for the product vision, roadmap, team strategy, and overall execution of Amazon Live, as well as building their video ads delivery platform. At Koddi, Lella is responsible for the product strategy, roadmap, and execution across the product, engineering, and data science teams.

“Koddi is at the forefront of technological innovation in the industry,” Lella said in a statement. “As a part of Koddi’s best-in-class team, I look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible in advertising technology and using AI to help our customers optimize their digital advertising efforts.”

Jiandani has global experience in the adtech industry, and recently was the chief revenue officer at PromoteIQ, a Microsoft company, where he was responsible for revenue generation, go-to-market strategy, customer delivery, and partnerships.

Before that, Jiandani was general manager and head of sales at Xandr, formerly AppNexus, where he successfully navigated one of AT&T’s largest Ad Tech acquisitions in Xandr.

In his role at Koddi, Jiandani is responsible for the marketing, sales, and partnership strategies and teams to drive revenue growth and market expansion.

“The Koddi team is continuously advancing advertising technology to help our customers succeed, and I am thrilled to be a part of the forward-thinking team to accelerate growth, build strong partnerships, and deliver innovative solutions to drive growth for our customers,” Jiandani said in a statement.

Narayan has extensive experience in the technology industry, having recently served as a senior product manager at DoorDash where he was integral to building the DoorDash ads business.

Previously, Narayan held positions at Google where he worked on the travel search team. Narayan’s role at Koddi includes developing and implementing strategic plans for the company.

“I’ve known the Koddi team for 8 years and have closely followed their journey to become a leader in the advertising technology industry,” Narayan said in a statement. “I am excited to now be part of the team and serve as a strategic partner for the leadership team to ensure that we are well-positioned for long-term success.”

Koddi’s software and services empower advertisers and publishers to increase awareness, generate demand, and drive revenue. Its commerce media platform, Koddi Ads, enables retailers and CPG companies, marketplaces, and publishers to build their own media networks, powered by first-party data and next-generation user experiences.

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