NEW YORK, May 12, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ContextWeb, Inc., a leading contextual advertising company and operator of the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange, announced today that Shanthini Sarkar has been promoted to the newly created position of Chief Product Officer. Ms. Sarkar was the driving force in the creation and recent launch of ContextWeb's Contextual Reach Extension. She has been the company's senior vice president of operations and product management since 2005. In her new role, she will continue ownership of her responsibilities to-date and will have additional P&L responsibilities for Channel Sales and Partnerships. The recently launched Contextual Reach Extension for Publishers and Vertical Ad Networks will also be under Ms. Sarkar.
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"Being a founder, Shanthi's clear vision regarding the future of ContextWeb combines seamlessly with her business acumen and superior product knowledge to create a perfect combination of skills for the role of chief product officer and for taking an innovative offering like our Contextual Reach Extension to market," says Anand Subramanian, CEO, ContextWeb, Inc.
"As the only major independent ad exchange, the ADSDAQ Exchange is uniquely positioned to unlock the value of online inventory by enabling publishers to name their own CPM prices," says Ms. Sarkar. "On the ad side, we assure that brands are protected and that brand messages appear in a context where they will be best received. Yet, we are far from done. I look forward to a series of product launches this year and next that will make the online buying and selling process even more efficient."
Ms. Sarkar, 34, joined ContextWeb from Gobi, Inc., a provider of accessible home computing and Internet connectivity, where she was the Assistant Director of Client Experience responsible for timely order fulfillment and efficient customer service. There, she also served as project manager, overseeing the design, implementation and rollout of the in-house order management system. Ms. Sarkar was also a lead software developer at Sapient Corporation.
Ms. Sarkar holds a B.S. in computer systems engineering from Stanford University and a M.S. in computer science from Columbia University.
ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange (http://exchange.contextweb.com) is the only online exchange where both advertisers and publishers have complete control. The Exchange's patent-pending, page-level contextual technology offers advertisers efficient pricing and extensive reach, making inventory on the Exchange "brand-safe" and comparable to a site-specific or portal buy.
The ADSDAQ Exchange ranks among the top 20 ad-supported properties, according to ComScore Media Metrix, and reaches +94 million monthly unique visitors (March, 2008). The Exchange includes more than 400 advertisers, including all of the top 10 marketing organizations, and more than 5,000 publishers. In 2007, Deloitte's New York Region Technology Fast 50 recognized ContextWeb as the 17th-fastest growing company in the New York area. The company's investors include leading venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ"), DFJ Gotham Ventures and Updata Partners.
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