LG Ads has named a new chief executive officer, appointing Michael Hudes to the role.
Hudes is also joining as a member of the company’s board of directors. He takes on the position from Adam Sexton, who had been serving as acting CEO and COO.
Before joining LG Ads, Hudes was a co-founder and chief commercial officer at Zenapse, an AI SaaS platform built on emotional intelligence for full funnel marketing and CX optimization. He also held roles at Lyft, YuMe/RhythmOne, Clear Channel and Organic, serving in the digital and advertising ecosystem.
“Michael's rich experience and proven track record in the digital and CTV advertising sphere makes him an invaluable addition to the LG Ad Solutions leadership team,” said LG Ad Solutions Board Chairman Matthew Durgin, VP at LG Electronics USA, in a statement. “We've witnessed the strides the company has been making under the existing executive leadership team and we expect to accelerate this momentum even further with Michael at the helm."
Before heading up LG Ads, Hudes served as an advisor to the company since the beginning of 2023. According to Hudes' LinkedIn, he’s also acted as an advisor to companies including Grate, twistyai, AdQuick, Firefly and PlayWorks Digital.
"I am both thrilled and honored to join LG Ad Solutions during such a transformative period for our industry,” said Hudes in a statement. “The opportunities ahead for LG Ad Solutions are vast, and I am deeply committed to steering the company into its next chapter of scale, innovation and industry leadership. Working alongside the talented team here, I am confident we can architect a future that defines success in the CTV and cross-screen advertising domain."
The new CEO hire comes as LG is working to gain ground in a shifting adverting and CTV landscape. The company just marked an expansion into the Canadian market in July. That followed the appointment of Jason Randall as Country Manager, VP of Sales in the market. Randall previously held sales roles at Ad Theorent, Verizon Media, Amobee and Yahoo!.
A year ago LG Ads decided to lean into automatic content recognition, replacing legacy tech and rolling out the glass-level ACR technology for millions of smart TVs across 27 countries. More recently in June it inked a strategic partnership with consumer intelligence company Acxiom, combining the latter’s marketing data with LG Ads Solutions’ proprietary ACR data for accurate matching across the LG CTV footprint at scale.