Former Google Partnerships Head Joins Hightouch

Californian marketing data firm Hightouch has appointed twenty-year Google veteran Jitendra Kumar as Head of Commercial, Advertising.

Hightouch's 'AI Decisioning' lifecycle marketing solution was launched in 2024, and builds an agentic marketing platform on top of a comprehensive enterprise context layer for each individual client. The platform then continuously experiments with messaging, timing and channel decisions to optimize them for every customer. Earlier this year, the company secured $150 million in Series D financing, valuing it at $2.75 billion.

Kumar (pictured) most recently led Google's US agency partnerships - previous roles included Account Manager, Head of New Product Incubation and Head of Industry for verticals including Media & Entertainment and Healthcare / Pharma. In his new role he will lead Hightouch's work across agencies, brands and advertising platforms, focused on how first-party data + AI agents can reshape the media workflow. He will also support broader awareness and adoption of Hightouch's advertising capabilities, including Ad Studio.

'Jitendra understands advertising from nearly every angle,' says Tejas Manohar, co-founder and Co-CEO of Hightouch, 'and he has spent his career helping some of the largest marketers and agencies navigate major shifts in technology. We believe AI is going to fundamentally change how agencies and marketing teams operate. The opportunity isn't simply to automate the workflows marketers already have, but to give them entirely new ways to turn their data, strategy and creativity into action. Jitendra brings the experience and perspective we need as we build that future across advertising.'

Web site: www.hightouch.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.