AI Investor Joins Criteo Board as Firm Moves to US

Commerce intelligence platform Criteo has appointed Jianchang 'JC' Mao to its Board as an independent director. Mao is a former employee of Google, Microsoft and IBM, and now a General Partner at AI investment company Fellows Fund. Separately, Criteo is moving its domicile to the States.

Mao (pictured) brings more than 30 years of experience in AI, digital advertising and search, including more than twenty years leading global research, product and engineering organizations. He will fill a board seat left vacant by Edmond Mesrobian, who has decided to step down after a round a decade of service. The company stresses this decision was not the result of any disagreement.

Before joining Fellows Fund, Mao was VP of Engineering for Google Assistant, leading a global organization responsible for its development and foundational AI technologies, including natural language processing, large language models and speech technologies. Previously he spent nine years at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Microsoft Advertising Product and Engineering; and earlier he was VP of Advertising Sciences at Yahoo! and held technology leadership roles at Verity. He began his career as a researcher at IBM's Almaden Research Center, and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Michigan State University, as well as master's and bachelor's degrees from East China Normal University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Chairman of the Board Rik van der Kooi says of the new arrival, 'JC is an exceptional technology leader who has built and scaled AI and advertising platforms at some of the world's largest technology companies. His combination of deep technical expertise, global operating experience and proven leadership across advertising and consumer technology will be a tremendous asset to Criteo.'

He adds: 'On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Edmond for his outstanding service and commitment to Criteo since 2017. His deep technology expertise and experience leading retail transformation have made a lasting contribution to our strategy.'


Separately, the company has written to shareholders to set out a plan to redomicile to the United States via a cross-border merger, at which point its common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Criteo completed an interim redomiciliation from France to Luxembourg, at the end of July, in order to facilitate this move, Luxembourg having 'a well-established regime of cross-border mergers between Luxembourg and U.S. companies.' According to CEO Michael Komasinski, this 'bold step forward' will help its leadership 'build a more agile company to create lasting value for its shareholders.'

Web site: www.criteo.com .