Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising company, announced the appointments of Masatsune Shironishi as managing director, Japan, and Nicole Prior as managing director, Australia and New Zealand, as Xandr continues to invest across APAC. Masatsune’s appointment is effective immediately, Nicole’s role is effective November 1^st.

As managing director, Japan, Masatsune Shironishi will be responsible for building on the early successes of the business, localising go-to-market efforts and ensuring Xandr is well placed to grow in digital video and connected TV. Masatsune joins from Amobee Japan where he was country manager and brings deep industry experience and expertise across media agencies, TV, digital media and advertising technology. Masatsune has also worked at Open Table, Elsevier and Microsoft in various senior sales and product roles.

In her role as managing director, Australia and New Zealand for Xandr, Nicole Prior’s remit will include overseeing the Australian business operations and continuing the momentum that the team has established in building a premium Australian video marketplace. Nicole is the former chief media partnerships officer at IPG Mediabrands’ UM and brings extensive agency and broadcaster experience with executive roles held at MediaCom, Finecast, Ikon Communications, Network 10 and Seven Network.

Masatsune and Nicole will report to Xandr head of global regions, Jerome Underhill. “Xandr has experienced strong growth across APAC as advertiser demand grows for premium, brand and privacy safe environments and publishers and broadcasters seek to meet that demand through partnerships with Xandr. These senior leadership appointments are reflective of the broader investments we are making throughout APAC to allow us to best serve our expanding set of customers,” Underhill said.

In addition to these appointments, Xandr is continuing to build its APAC leadership team including a general manager to lead Southeast Asia and India. Xandr has already expanded the leadership team, with Tom Dover having relocated from Sydney to Singapore as director, video marketplace development for APAC. Tom will be responsible for accelerating Xandr’s video-first product adoption delivering creative and differentiated solutions to the region’s largest agencies and advertisers.

Xandr recently announced results for its platform in Q2 with total international platform spend up by 76 %YoY in Q2 2021. To support this growth, Xandr has made 14 hires in 2021 across Commercial, Services and Operations in Australia, India, and Japan.