Singtel changes Amobee CEO

Samba Natarajan

Amobee, the ad platform owned by Singtel, has shaken up its executive with the appointment of Samba Natarajan as its CEO.

Natarajan has been the boss of Singtel’s Digital Life group, which also includes OTT platform Hooq and data analytics business DataSpark, since 2015. 

The decision has been made after current Amobee CEO Kim Perell stepped down in order to “pursue her passion of supporting startup entrepreneurs.” Perell has served as Amobee’s CEO since 2016. Before joining Amobee, she was CEO of Adconion Direct, a global digital marketing company, which was acquired by Amobee in 2014.

Natarajan has more than 25 years of corporate and consulting experience in senior roles across strategy, business development and finance. Prior to his current role at Singtel, he worked for Citibank and McKinsey & Company. In his last role with McKinsey, he led the Southeast Asia Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice, consulting with C-level executives in the areas of transformation, corporate finance, M&A and commercial operations.

Natarajan said: “I’m honored and excited to take on this role as CEO of Amobee. I look forward to working closely with the dedicated Amobee team to drive further progress in the programmatic business and make Amobee the leading platform for omni-channel advertising. This is an exciting time to be in digital advertising, and Amobee’s assets position us for success.”

Amobee’s chairman Evangelos Simoudis said: “We are fortunate to have someone of Samba’s caliber taking over to lead the next stage of Amobee’s growth. As a leading advertising platform, we are at a crucial phase in our development and need experienced leadership to implement our strategy and to capitalize on the market opportunities ahead. Samba is a proven CEO who has been intimately involved with Amobee over the past five years. His strong content knowledge and global corporate experience will allow us to further accelerate our growth strategy to win in converged advertising.”

Of Perell’s departure, Simoudis said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Kim for helming Amobee over the past three years. Under her leadership, Amobee has successfully integrated the acquisitions of Turn and Videology, positioning it to deliver superior converged advertising solutions.”