Executive Management

Jeff T. Green has served as our president and chief executive officer and as a member of our board of directors since November 2009. Prior to The Trade Desk, Mr. Green founded AdECN, the world's first online advertising exchange. As chief operating officer of AdECN, he led all strategy, product and business development. AdECN was acquired by the Microsoft Corporation within three years of launch. At Microsoft, Mr. Green oversaw the AdECN exchange business, as well as all reseller and channel partner business. Additionally, he advised the roll-up strategy for the Online Services Division of Microsoft. Mr. Green has also played a leadership role in the ad tech industry, having served on the Networks and Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines Committee for the Internet Advertising Bureau, or IAB, from 2011 to 2012. At IAB, Mr. Green led working groups that established rules and best practices for acquiring inventory, and set data transaction standards. Previously, Mr. Green served on the board of Falk Technologies, a global advertising technology company based in Europe. Mr. Green has also served as an advisor to a series of companies including AppNexus, a technology platform based in New York City, and SiteWit, an SMB search engine marketing firm. In 2015, Ernst & Young named Mr. Green Entrepreneur of the Year in the Greater Los Angeles region. We believe that Mr. Green is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive management experience and sophisticated industry background.

Dave is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of The Trade Desk, and a member of the company's Board of Directors. David R. Pickles has served as our chief technology officer since March 2010. Mr. Pickles has spent his entire career building real-time Internet delivery systems. At the Internet telephony startup CallWave, Inc., he was involved in building all back end components of the system: client session management services, telephone call handling services, client registration services, B2B integrations with all major telephone carriers, and complex high performance database systems (including a custom billing and CRM system). Mr. Pickles and his team were the recipients of multiple awards and recognition for high performance while at CallWave. In 2015, Ernst & Young named Mr. Pickles Entrepreneur of the Year in the Greater Los Angeles region. Mr. Pickles received a B.S. in Computer Science from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Jay brings to his role as Chief Legal Officer of The Trade Desk over 20 years of legal experience with media and digital enterprises. Prior to joining The Trade Desk, he served as EVP & General Counsel of Univision Communications Inc.'s Digital and News divisions. Prior to that, he was EVP & General Counsel at UCI’s English language media division, the Fusion Media Group, a multiplatform company that includes digital publishing, a cable network, studio, and home to brands like Deadspin and the Onion. An officer of UCI and its more than two dozen broadcasting networks, cable networks, digital and mobile properties and more than 120 television and radio stations, he advised senior management on strategic partnerships, new ventures, content acquisition, and distribution deals.

Jay has held a variety of senior leadership positions. He managed corporate governance and transactions for UCI and its board of directors, served as group counsel for UCI’s corporate development and strategic growth group, and represented all UCI divisions. Jay has also served on the boards of both El Rey Holdings, LLC — the media venture with a general cable network and advertising creative agency — and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. He started his career in private practice at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.

Jay received his J.D. from the University of California Berkeley Law, and an M.B.A with specializations in strategy, entertainment, media, technology, and corporate finance from New York University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude in government from Harvard University.

As Chief Financial Officer of The Trade Desk, Blake Grayson oversees the company’s overall financial activities, including controllership, tax, treasury, analysis, investor relations, facilities, and financial operations.

Prior to becoming CFO of The Trade Desk in 2019, Grayson was at Amazon.com for over a decade, helping to support many of the company’s fastest growing initiatives. He most recently was the Vice President, Finance, for the International Consumer business, serving as the head of finance for businesses in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Japan, China, Australia, Brazil, Middle East, and Singapore, as well as for worldwide finance teams for Automated Marketing, Kindle Content/Books, and Global Payments. Prior roles at Amazon included leading finance for the company’s worldwide Marketplace business, and various finance functions for North America Consumer, Amazon Web Services, and Global Payments. Prior to Amazon, he worked for Washington Mutual/JP Morgan Chase leading Payments finance and FP&A functions, and previously worked in the wireless and financial services industries. Grayson graduated with a BA (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Washington and has an MBA (with honors) from the University of Southern California.

Grayson is currently based in Seattle where he lives with his wife and two children.

As Chief Revenue Officer of The Trade Desk, Sims drives the company’s revenue generation and new client acquisition globally. Sims manages The Trade Desk’s global business development organization as well as the inventory partnerships team to continue the company’s rapid growth, particularly in the area of connected TV (CTV). Sims has more than 20 years’ experience in the advertising industry, six of those with The Trade Desk.

Prior to his appointment as CRO, Sims served as Senior Vice President of Inventory Partnerships at The Trade Desk. In that role, Sims drove the company's strategy and execution in creating cutting-edge supply-side collaborations with partners around the world and across multiple channels including video, audio, mobile, native and display. Sims spearheaded The Trade Desk’s growth in emerging channels like CTV and Audio, with CTV spend on The Trade Desk’s platform increasing 137% percent year-over-year from 2018 to 2019 and audio spend on the platform up 185% from 2018 to 2019. Sims has been influential in driving The Trade Desk’s continued global growth, with first-to-market integrations with many premium publishers in the past year, including Amazon Publisher Services, Disney Advertising Sales, NBCUniversal, SlingTV, Freewheel, Spotify, and TubiTV in the U.S., TikTok and AbemaTV in the Asia Pacific region, and RakutenTV and TFI in Europe.

Additionally, Sims leads the company’s industry-shaping publisher management platform, where advertisers can transact with publishers to buy premium inventory through programmatic channels.

A recognized industry leader, Sims was named one of the 23 insiders shaping the future of TV advertising by Business Insider and he has been quoted and published in a variety of media, including Adweek, Variety, ZDNet, MediaPost and eMarketer’s ‘Behind the Numbers’ podcast. He is a frequent speaker at industry events including Cannes Lions, DMEXCO, AdvertisingWeek, IAB’s Programmatic Symposium, and Modern Marketing Summit as well as many partner events.

Sims serves on the Board of Directors for the Ad Council, an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements.

Sims is an advertising technology veteran, having previously served as Director of Business Development at OpenX, and Director of Media at Spot Runner.

Sims is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and lives and works in New York City.

As the Chief Growth Officer for The Trade Desk, Naseem is responsible for growth initiatives and scaling operations across the company, focusing on long-term workforce expansion and expanding the company’s global presence.

Naseem joined The Trade Desk with almost 30 years of business leadership experience, 24 of them spent at Microsoft where he managed global sales strategy and field operations across the Modern Work portfolio of businesses including Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Windows, Surface, Enterprise Mobility and Security. During his tenure at Microsoft, Naseem served as COO and CMO for Microsoft’s Middle East and Africa region, helping grow a multi-billion dollar business across 25 countries. He also led Microsoft’s global software partner business, and helped build the world’s largest developer community.

In addition to his experience at Microsoft, Naseem was also CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of Fidesic Corporation, a venture-backed start-up that automates financial processes for midsize organizations.

Naseem holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and is based out of Seattle.

Ian Colley serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, where he leads all aspects of global communications, editorial content, content marketing and social media for The Trade Desk worldwide.

Prior to his current role, Ian spent more than 20 years at IBM, leading communications for a range of divisions including IBM Cloud, IBM Finance, IBM Global Services and IBM Europe. Ian began his career at two New York City communications agencies, Edward Novotny & Associates and the Weiser Walek Group, where he managed communications for clients such as Goldman Sachs, Barclays Bank, Nuveen, Club Med and COMEX.

Ian is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University and is based at The Trade Desk’s New York City offices.

In her role as Senior Vice President at The Trade Desk, Tahnil oversees various areas of finance from the company’s headquarters in Ventura, California. Tahnil has more than 18 years of experience, having begun her career in the audit practice of Arthur Andersen. She has subsequently taken on various accounting and finance roles in the technology industry.

Tahnil holds an undergraduate degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Jed Dederick is Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer for The Trade Desk. As the leader of The Trade Desk’s Client Development organization, Jed and his team work to build meaningful relationships with the world's largest advertisers and agencies. By collaborating with The Trade Desk’s global business team, Jed oversees The Trade Desk’s most important brand and agency relationships as the company’s customer base grows globally. A recognized expert at the forefront of digital advertising innovation, Jed has been featured in media including Ad Age, Adweek, Digiday, The Drum and China Daily. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences including Brand Innovators, multiple Adweek and IAB events, and AdvertisingWeek NY.

Prior to this role, Jed served as The Trade Desk’s North American Head of Sales, as Regional Vice President of East Coast Sales, and years ago as the first member of The Trade Desk’s sales team. Since joining The Trade Desk in 2012, Jed has played a critical role in the company’s success and rapid growth. Jed helped create and grow The Trade Desk’s largest client partnerships and developed the company’s sales capacity including go-to-market strategy, messaging and organization.

Prior to joining The Trade Desk, Jed served in digital sales and client services roles at leading publishers including The Wall Street Journal and WebMD.

Jed is a graduate of Connecticut College where he studied music. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two children.

As Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for The Trade Desk, Samantha Jacobson manages strategic investments and cross-functional initiatives to reinforce TTD’s position as an industry leader. Prior to this role, she served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.

Samantha joined The Trade Desk after six years at Oracle where she managed the global business development and strategy team. Prior to Oracle, Samantha was at Datalogix where she crafted partnerships with industry giants like Twitter, Pinterest, Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

Before joining Datalogix in 2013, Samantha held a variety of business development, partner management, and strategy positions at other companies such as eBay and American Express. During these roles, Samantha honed her strategy and consulting expertise working for the business leaders of various companies to help them define their path forward and understand market dynamics. She then moved to more operational roles to help implement these goals through partner management and development working with a variety of clients from restaurants to financial institutions to tech companies.

Samantha is an advocate for access to education – serving on the board of Denver Preschool Program and The New America School. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Finance and Management and received her Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. In her free time, Samantha enjoys traveling, reading, and scuba diving with her husband Phil and their five children.

Chris currently serves as Vice President, Investor Relations.

Chris brings leadership depth in a wide array of financial management functions, including investor relations, financial planning & analysis, M&A, business valuation, and corporate development. Prior to The Trade Desk, Chris was head of investor relations at Newport Corporation before its acquisition by MKS Instruments. Previously, Chris was in the finance department at International Rectifier where headed investor relations and held concurrent roles in finance and corporate development prior to its acquisition by Infineon Technologies.

An avid backcountry hiker, Chris also serves as a Director for Push It Inc., a start-up SaaS company, and a Director for a non-profit Australian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that is facilitating a tourism project for the East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea by creating a partnership between federal and local government groups to build a self-sustaining and eco-friendly adventure tourism industry.

Chris holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of California at Irvine and resides in Southern California with his wife and two children.