Syncbak Hires Ad Sales, Marketing Veterans

Syncbak, which created the technology that powers live OTT, today announced the addition of two senior hires: Dean Mandel as vice president of advertising sales and Noreen Thurston as vice president of marketing.

The company’s SimpleSync OTT technology allows networks, stations and studios to broadcast anything, anywhere. It also serves as the backbone for SBTV, which lets local broadcasters build OTT channels and offers an app for consumers to access live local programming from anywhere in the U.S. for free.

“Dean Mandel is an ad sales veteran who has forged deep relationships with media buyers, local broadcast station groups and ad tech providers,” said Jack Perry, Syncbak founder-CEO. “Because we power the vast majority of live local over OTT, a billion monthly avails aren’t that far off. Getting Dean in place now will ensure Syncbak takes the lead in dynamic ad insertion.”

Prior to joining Syncbak, Mandel was VP-general sales manager-digital at CoxReps and was an original member of Katz 360, the digital arm of iHeartMedia’s Katz Media group. He has served on the Advertising Research Foundation Audio Committee, the Internet Advertising Bureau Audio and Digital Video Committees and is IAB Digital Media Sales Certified.

“Syncbak offers me an incredible opportunity to connect large national advertisers with viewers of great local TV content,” said Mandel. “SBTV is exactly what the OTT space needs right now, and I am excited to be a part of this historic launch.”

Thurston most recently was a VP at GoDaddy. “Noreen Thurston brings significant startup and digital marketing experience to Syncbak, having built GoDaddy into a worldwide powerhouse brand,” said Perry. “Our goal remains to deploy our technology to every local station in every market and I feel confident that Noreen can get us there.”