FreeWheel Names Katy Loria US Chief Revenue Officer

Video advertising firm FreeWheel has appointed Katy Loria as U.S. chief revenue officer, Michael Lawlor as chief operations and service officer, and Chris Rouser as head of human resources. Based in New York, Loria, Lawlor, and Rouser will serve as key members of the FreeWheel executive leadership team.

Mark McKee, FreeWheel general manager, said: “With a host of new streaming options and subscription models, the TV advertising industry is at an inflection point and in need of simplicity, efficiency, and scale. We are excited to have Katy, Michael, and Chris lead and further the company’s focus on connecting this new TV ecosystem to enable its addressable and programmatic future.

“These industry leaders are excellent candidates for their respective roles: Katy, with her tremendous sales presence, focus on the customer, and solutions-oriented approach to sales; Michael, with his operational excellence-driven leadership and strategic customer-first approach to the business; and Chris, with his conviction that creating a great culture brings the talent and experience to help companies succeed.”

Katy Loria, U.S. Chief Revenue Officer — As U.S. CRO, Loria will be responsible for growing both the sell and buy sides of FreeWheel’s marketplace. Reporting to McKee, she will define and maintain the revenue strategy through architecting and integrating revenue streams and designing and launching new revenue programs.

Loria joins FreeWheel from Screenvision Media, where she had a strong track record of revenue generation, client focus, and employee development, as well as spearheading industry-responsive strategies and leading strategic partnerships. Prior to Screenvision Media, Loria led national sales for ViacomCBS (now Paramount), where she cultivated a dynamic, solutions-oriented sales team. She began her career at MTV Networks in advertising sales.

With more than 20 years of leadership experience across Fortune 500s and start-ups, Loria is the recipient of several industry awards including Adweek’s 50 Most Indispensable People and Celluloid Junkie’s Top 50 Women in Global Cinema.

Michael Lawlor, Chief Operations and Service Officer — In his newly promoted role, Lawlor will be responsible for centralizing all advertising and service-level operations to ensure flexibility, coordination, and scale. By creating accountability for releasing new products as well as servicing them, FreeWheel is able to go to market swiftly, with customer-centric products and service. He will also report to McKee.

Lawlor has more than 15 years of industry experience and has been a key player at FreeWheel for more than seven years in various customer-centric leadership roles including leading Advisory Services, Global Client Services, AudienceXpress and Media Operations. Most recently, Lawlor was head of U.S.

Commercial and Marketplace Operations, where he developed and led the U.S. Marketplace Operations team and supported the U.S. Revenue team.

Prior to joining FreeWheel, Lawlor held integral roles at Univision, where he developed the company’s first digital Revenue Operations function and launched Univision’s first scaled premium video programmatic offerings. Lawlor also previously served in leadership positions at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Co.) in the Media Operations practice and in the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is on the board of Rosie’s Theater Kids.

Chris Rouser, Head of Human Resources — As head of human resources, Rouser will be responsible for providing leadership to the company’s human resources business partners who support employees throughout the globe. He will work closely with business leaders to design programs that engage, attract, retain, and enable the innovation and change critical to compete in the technology sector. Rouser will report to Tracey Kopper-Hourin, senior vice president of human resources and customer experience for Comcast Advertising, whose position he is filling following her promotion to her current role.

Rouser comes to FreeWheel from Comcast, which he joined in 2013 and has since grown his career in various talent and human resource roles. Most recently, he was vice president of human resources for Comcast’s Keystone Region.

With more than 20 years of experience, Rouser previously held various global human resources and business operations roles at Advanced Technology Services, Verizon Communications and Ford Motor Co.