Programmatic Trading Director
Resume:
*** ****** **, *** ***, White Plains, New York, **601
*****.**********@*****.***
JAMES GILLIES
PROFILE
I am an experienced trading director in programmatic media with 8 years in the industry and 5 years in management positions. I have operated across all major addressable media channels, verticals, and DSPs. I have serviced both agencies and advertisers directly, operating as client point of contact, campaign media trader, and reporting analyst. My experience is primarily with direct response & outcome focused media, including lifetime customer value generation and total path optimization.
At Media iQ, I hired, trained, and managed the trading team in Washington DC, whilst operating as the trading lead for the region’s first clients. Within 2 years I successfully onboarded 12 programmatic traders collectively overseeing $40M in annual revenue, and maintained a +90% client retention rate. My success in this region was recognized internally, which led to the new position of US Strategic Trading Director being created for me. In this capacity I served as thought leader for the national trading team, leading group workshops and 1:1 personal training sessions, provided strategic guidance for key accounts, and was responsible for optimizing national business P&L, through both campaign media optimization and team performance. I established trading techniques to optimize media performance, developed trading tools to enhance trading team workflow and mentored individuals to improve their client servicing capabilities.
I joined Hybrid Theory to create their US trading operation. In 6 months I secured business revenue of $300k/month from 3 clients in my network. I managed these campaigns initially until I hired a team to support this business. I then moved to a global position where I coordinated with the 3 trading directors leading NA, EMEA, and APAC, as well as heads of product and engineering to expand our data analysis and audience targeting capability. I was also responsible for directing business strategy on processes and platforms.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
HYBRID THEORY
GLOBAL TRADING & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, NEW YORK MAR 2020 – NOV 2021
LEAD GLOBAL TRADING OPERATIONS ACROSS NA, EMEA, AND APAC WITH REGIONAL TRADING DIRECTORS REPORTING TO ME
INCREASED GLOBAL PROFIT MARGIN BY 10% THROUGH TRADER TRAINING
COORDINATED WITH HEADS OF COMMERCIAL, PRODUCT, AND ENGINEERING TEAMS TO ENHANCE PRODUCT OFFERING AND EXPAND AUDIENCE TARGETING CAPABILITIES
NORTH AMERICA TRADING & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, NEW YORK MAR 2018 – MAR 2020
Lead US trading and operations, reporting directly to the NA CEO
Secured & serviced early clients to ensure a stable base of business for growth
Accountable for net profitability of US business
Managed strategic client relationships, consulting advertisers across digital display execution
Hiring of local trading team including recruitment, training, and team performance KPI management
MEDIA IQ DIGITAL
STRATEGIC TRADING DIRECTOR, NEW YORK SEP 2017 – JAN 2018
Raised national gross profit margin by 20%, whilst maintaining +90% client retention
Led trading workshops, where I presented trading techniques, analytical methods, trading philosophies, and trading tools
Mentored each trader individually on a weekly basis, where we analyzed and optimized their campaigns to achieve client Key Performance Indicators
Created trading tools & templates in Excel and Visual Basic, which traders used daily to analyze and optimize their campaigns
Unlocked new revenue streams from untapped media agencies by trading strategic accounts
Grew company's presence nationally by recruiting and training traders across emerging regions like Chicago, Denver, and LA
MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL TRADING MANAGER, WASHINGTON DC JUL 2016 – SEP 2017
Founded the Mid-Atlantic trading team from the ground up. Recruited, mentored, and managed a team of 12 traders
Spearheaded the growth of the Mid-Atlantic regional business, working with the sales team to acquire 120 monthly clients with a 97% retention rate
Grew the region from $300k in Q1 2016 to $28MM in revenue in 2017
Enabled regional traders to manage 30% more campaigns, while also earning 50% higher gross profit than any other region globally
Managed traders’ workloads whilst planning future hires in line with expected client growth
Created and maintained development plans and objectives for employees, and guided them
Met with clients regularly to review campaign performance, learn their business challenges, and present actionable media insights
Traded 30-40 display campaigns per month across all KPIs (Return on Investment, Cost per acquisition, Viewability, Click through rate) all main media types (Display, Mobile, Video, Native), all major verticals (Retail, Financial, Pharmaceutical, Travel, Automotive, Telecom, Political, Non-profit) primarily on DoubleClick Bid Manager and Appnexus.
Traded our most strategic accounts in the UK to ensure business success
Generated the highest monthly profit margin on the trading team, on average 50% higher than other traders
Trained new traders as we expanded our team
Lifetime campaign revenue traded at Media iQ is approximately $15MM
Created client facing presentations to display Media iQ audience insight and showcase performing strategies
PROGRAMMATIC DISPLAY TRADER, MEDIA IQ DIGITAL, LONDON, UK OCT 2013 – SEP 2015
Traded client’s display campaigns across multiple Demand Side Platforms, primarily Appnexus and DoubleClick Bid Manager
Analyzed and optimized display campaigns to achieve client KPIs and maximize internal profitability
Worked with clients to achieve their business goals, or advise them on how to run a successful display campaign if they were new to the industry
SKILLS
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Team workload management and task prioritization
Individual development through mentorship and goal setting
Thought leader on best practice campaign optimization strategies
TRADING, ANALYSIS, AND OPTIMIZATION
Strong data analysis and bid optimization mindset
Highly experienced with DSPs, primarily Appnexus and DBM, as well as other platforms including the DoubleClick product suite, Google Analytics, Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, MediaMath, Sizmek, Flashtalking, Nielsen, LiveRamp
Excel power user; I am extremely versatile at analyzing data, creating bespoke reports or analysis templates, and coding user friendly macros
COMMERCIAL AWARENESS AND CLIENT INTERACTION
Strong client facing skills; presented media insights to clients to help solve their business challenges
Collaborated with the sales team to increase client display budgets, recommended tactical campaigns or products, and grew enterprise business
EDUCATION
BSC MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, UK
1st Class (4.0 GPA Equivalent in US)
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