Piksel Strengthens Global Team for Customer Verticals Focus

NEW YORK, NY (Marketwired March 9, 2014) Piksel, a global provider of video monetization software and services, announced that it had completed a key phase in its growth plan today, with a restructuring of its commercial and solutions operations into a global customer-centric business focused on industry verticals. These verticals represent those customers for which media is their core business: Content Producers, Aggregators, and Distributors (CAD) and those for which media supports their business: Faith, Sports, and Enterprise (FSE).

Piksel is a company with a tremendous technological heritage weve delivered a huge range of firsts in the online video space the first commercial OTT platforms in Europe and the Middle East, the first aggregation video-on-demand site for broadcast content in Europe, and some of the earliest second screen mobile applications for synchronized viewing to the TV. But as ground-breaking as these initiatives have been, they would be simply be a solution in search of a problem, without a deep understanding of our customers businesses and a committed partnership to help them maximize the return on their media assets, said Kevin Joyce, Piksels Chief Commercial Officer.

Too much of the industry vernacular is taken up describing what the technology is, not what it does, and what it means for customers. Its a form of navel-gazing that means youre constantly talking about yourself, not the customer and thats just not where we want to be, Mr. Joyce continued.

Officially launched in August last year, Piksel has focused on solutions that maximize the reach and return of video delivered over IP, with solutions developed according to the differing needs of customer types.

Piksels Sales, Solutions Architecture, Product Marketing, and Product teams now operate as verticals-oriented businesses, ensuring that industry specialists are leveraged to where they need to be to best support our clients needs, said Peter Heiland, Piksels Interim Chief Executive Officer.

In some cases this has meant that weve completely restructured teams to focus on customers, not the technology for its own sake. The merger of our former Media Solutions Group into a globalized Solutions Architect team under the direct guidance of our CTO, Mark Christie, is a case in point. This next-generation team is one of the most critical in the company. Theyre the conduit between the customer and our product organization, and, yes, they need to be fluent not just in the technology but most importantly in the customers business, Mr. Heiland said.

Piksel is proud to announce the following additions and promotions:

Mitch Askenas, SVP Commercial CAD Americas

Kevin Burke, Director of Sports

Tony Cole, VP Global Business Development CAD

Stacie Desplanques, VP Product Marketing CAD & FSE

Shaun Doyle, VP Commercial CAD Northern Europe

Brian Kisslak, VP Global Strategic Accounts CAD

Mario Pabst, Commercial Director, DACH FSE

Benj Smith, General Manager Faith

Jody Stark, VP Commercial, Americas CAD

Hal Stiles, Director Solutions Architecture, Americas CAD

Riccardo Vescovi, Director Solutions Architecture, EMEA CAD

The needs of our customers are evolving and as they do, so will we, said Mr. Heiland. Im confident that the depth and experience of our people will continue to ensure that our customers are the best served in the industry.

About Piksel

We help the worlds leading brands maximize their reach and return with video.

Comprised of a global team of experts we call televisionaries, Piksel has helped to design, build, and manage online video services for major media companies like AT&T, BSkyB, Celcom, Mediaset, Sky Deutschland and Televisa, as well as enterprise brands like Airbus, Barnes & Noble, and Volkswagen.

Headquartered in New York City, Piksel offices can be found throughout Europe and the Americas, serving more than 1,600 clients in over 50 countries.

Follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/piksel