The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) used today’s MMA Europe Forum to unveil Greg Stuart as its new global president and CEO. Stuart will oversee the implementation of the MMA’s recent repositioning, which is designed to enhance the MMA’s effectiveness at the global, regional and national levels, in order to reach its goal of making mobile an indispensible part of the marketing mix.

Stuart was president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2001 through 2007. During his tenure, the organization’s revenue grew more than 500 per cent, and its membership by a factor of 10, while internet ad spend grew from $6bn annually to more than $17bn. Over the past three years, he has served as advisor, director and angel investor to more than a dozen venture-backed companies worldwide.

He brings more than two decades of experience of all aspects of the marketing business, including the buy-side, sell-side and both as a CMO and head of ad sales, as well as a long history of working with digital media companies and venture firms in Silicon Valley and internationally.

“Greg is a seasoned leader with hands-on experience in building out new media channels and digital media businesses,” says MMA global chairman, Federico Pisani Massamormile. “This, combined with his clear vision for the mobile industry, and his understanding of the global markets, makes him the ideal CEO to further the MMA’s mission of building the mobile marketplace. His successful track record in galvanizing an association and building a new medium, along with his unique understanding of each constituent in our membership will be key for helping global brands and agencies make mobile a critical part of their marketing mix.” 

Stuart will be based in New York, and will oversee the MMA’s global operations. His immediate focus will be to work with the members to dramatically increase marketing spend on mobile, while helping brands and agencies to be successful; and to support media, technology companies and carriers to develop and prosper from the mobile marketing ecosystem.

He says: “I am truly excited to be joining the MMA at this stage. My sense is that the need to evangelize the channel has changed to a need to educate brands and agencies on how to apply the reach and personal and powerful effectiveness of mobile for their brands. The time has come to bring together consumers, global marketers, agencies, the media, technology and carriers to build a best of breed medium in mobile.”