Comcast’s advanced advertising FreeWheel unit has made new additions to its C-suite, naming Katy Loria as U.S. chief revenue officer and Michael Lawlor as chief operations and service officer.
Rounding out a trio of executive appointments is Chris Rouser, who is now head of Human Resources. All three will be based in New York and serve as members of the FreeWheel Executive Leadership team.
Loria steps into the CRO role previously held by Mark McKee, who was named General Manager in January to oversee all aspects of FreeWheel’s business. Loria, who was previously CRO at cinema advertising company Screenvision Media, will report to McKee.
In her new role, Loria is charged with growth of the sell and buy sides of FreeWheel’s advertising marketplace. Responsibilities include defining and maintaining the revenue strategy by building and integrating revenue streams and developing and launching new revenue programs.
After spending more than eight years at Screenvision, Loria most recently served as interim CRO for Adweek. Earlier in her carrier she held leadership roles at ViacomCBS (now Paramount), with nearly two decades at the company, including SVP of Digital Ad Sales. In that role she integrated linear and digital sales teams, and established go-to-market digital ad products. Loria started her career in advertising sales at MTV Networks.
“With a host of new streaming options and subscription models, the TV advertising industry is at an inflection point and in need of simplicity, efficiency, and scale. We are excited to have Katy, Michael, and Chris lead and further the company’s focus on connecting this new TV ecosystem to enable its addressable and programmatic future,” said McKee, in a statement.
Lawlor, meanwhile, is FreeWheel alum, having spent more than seven years in customer-centric leadership roles – most recently as head of U.S. Commercial and Marketplace Operations. With the promotion, Lawlor is tasked with centralizing all advertising and service-level operations for flexibility, coordination and scale.
Before joining FreeWheel, Lawlor held roles at Univision including general manager of Local Digital and VP of Digital Revenue Operations. While at Univision, he developed the company’s first digital revenue operations function and launched its first scaled premium video programmatic offerings. Prior to Univision, Lawlor was director of strategic initiatives and analysis at NBCUniversal, and was CFO for the executive office of public safety and security for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Rouser is joining FreeWheel from parent ccompany Comcast, where he most recently served as VP of Human Resources for Comcast’s Keystone region. His earlier experience includes human resources and business operations roles at Advanced Technology Services, Verizon, and Ford Motor Company. Rouser will report to Tracey Kopper-Hourin, who previously held the Human Resources role and was promoted to SVP of Human Resources and Customer Experience for Comcast Advertising.
“These industry leaders are excellent candidates for their respective roles: Katy, with her tremendous sales presence, focus on the customer, and solutions-oriented approach to sales; Michael, with his operational excellence-driven leadership and strategic customer-first approach to the business; and Chris, with his conviction that creating a great culture brings the talent and experience to help companies succeed,” said McKee.
FreeWheel has launched capabilities in recent months, including ID solutions in June to bring a more cohesive picture to premium TV advertisers and publishers through interoperability of ID data across a variety of providers. It partnered with AMC Networks last month to introduce a fully self-service linear a addressable solution, making it easier to manage multi-screen campaigns.