Optable is shuffling its leadership deck as it doubles down on AI-driven identity management and data collaboration. The Montreal-based company announced that co-founder Vlad Stesin will step into the CEO role, while founding CEO Yves Poiré transitions to Executive Chairman, a newly created position focused on partnerships and industry strategy. The company also tapped Patrick Viau as Chief Revenue Officer to drive global growth.

Leadership Reset for a Growth Push

The timing isn’t accidental. Optable, launched in 2020, has carved out a niche in helping publishers and media companies make sense of identity resolution and data collaboration—critical functions in a world where third-party cookies are disappearing and interoperability is king.

By promoting Stesin, previously Chief Strategy Officer, the company is elevating one of the architects of its platform vision. Poiré will stay close to the action as Executive Chairman, focusing on alliances and industry alignment, while Viau adds enterprise SaaS firepower to the revenue side.

“Vlad’s acute sense of product strategy and understanding of customer challenges make him the right CEO for this moment,” Poiré said.

Enter “Agentic Collaboration”

Optable’s pitch has always been about simplifying how organizations connect, enrich, and activate data across fragmented ecosystems. Now, Stesin says the company is heading into what he calls the era of “Agentic Collaboration”—AI-powered workflows that replace manual, inefficient processes with intelligent, automated insights.

The vision: advertisers, publishers, and agencies can collaborate at scale on audience insights, campaign planning, and measurement with greater speed and accuracy. Think identity graphs and clean-room-style interoperability, but with AI agents doing much of the heavy lifting.

“We’re moving towards a new chapter of identity infrastructure and data collaboration,” Stesin said, arguing that AI has made it possible to drastically expand the efficiency of data-driven media buys across a growing network of media partners and data sources.

Strengthening the Commercial Engine

That’s where new CRO Patrick Viau comes in. With a résumé spanning Oracle, SAP, Rasa, and multiple high-growth SaaS firms, Viau brings a mix of big-enterprise discipline and startup scaling experience. His mandate: expand adoption of Optable’s platform across both the sell-side and buy-side of the advertising ecosystem.

Stesin calls his addition “critical” as the company rides growing demand for AI-enabled collaboration tools that deliver measurable results.

Bigger Picture

The leadership changes signal Optable’s intent to play offense at a pivotal moment in ad tech. As publishers fight to protect and monetize first-party data, and advertisers hunt for privacy-safe collaboration channels, platforms like Optable are positioning themselves as the connective tissue.

If “data collaboration” was once a buzzword, the rise of AI-driven automation—and the complexity of the media landscape—may finally make it a necessity.

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