Jay Sears

General Manager
CONTEXTWEB

Jay Sears is General Manager of the CONTEXTWEB Ad Exchange for CONTEXTWEB, Inc. Mr. Sears is responsible for bringing new products to market as well as developing key strategic relationships that drive audience and revenue acquisition.

Sears created the company’s original publisher development team and launched the self-service CONTEXTWEB Exchange Selling Desk, in use by over 11,000 web publishers today. He then oversaw the subsequent launch of CONTEXTWEB’s self-service offering for advertisers—the CONTEXTWEB Exchange Buying Desk and its inside sales team. He is currently focused on the company’s real-time bidding (RTB) initiatives with ad networks, agency trading desks and demand side platforms (DSPs).

Prior to joining ContextWeb in 2004, Mr. Sears was SVP Business & Strategy Development for EDGAR Online, where he drove the strategy that took the company from an under $1 million entrepreneurial business to a publicly traded NASDAQ company. He created over 300 partnerships including ones with Yahoo!, The NASDAQ Stock Market and Microsoft. Prior to EDGAR Online, he served as VP Marketing for Wolff New Media, the subject of Burn Rate by Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff.

Mr. Sears was instrumental in creating the CONTEXTWEB’s advisory board and speaks about internet advertising at various industry events including ad:tech, Advertising Week, iMedia, OMMA, Search Engine Strategies, UBS, WebmasterWorld and interactive marketing associations including ones in Boston, Chicago and Dallas. He co-chairs the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Ad Networks and Exchanges Committee and helped write its Quality Assurance Guidelines. Sears received the 2009 President Award from The Advertising Club. He is the hyperlocal publisher behind the local media site MyRye.com, provides commentary at JaySears.com and tweets from @jaysears. Sears holds a BA in political science from Kenyon College.