Ian Thomas has been involved in the world of online measurement and Business Intelligence for over ten years. In 2000 he co-founded WebAbacus, which was one of the UK’s first web analytics firms, specializing in and helping to define the online ad campaign measurement space. In his time at WebAbacus, Ian led projects in partnership with ad serving technology companies Atlas and Bluestreak, and with major media and creative agencies including Carat Digital, Ogilvy:One, mOne (Mindshare Interaction), Tribal DDB and Euro RSCG.
In 2006 Ian moved to Seattle, WA, to join Microsoft Advertising, initially to work on Project “Gatineau”, a free web analytics tool to compete with Google Analytics. He now heads up Business Intelligence for Microsoft’s global online display advertising network, which includes MSN, Windows Live, Xbox Live and a host of third-party sites. In his role, Ian has to juggle very high data volumes (billions of impressions per day) with the increasingly sophisticated demands of users while maintaining high levels of data availability and reliability. Ian has delivered a string of innovations that have helped senior leadership within the company boil down the complexities of the online advertising business and make impactful decisions on how to run the business.
Alongside his technical and business skills, Ian is an accomplished public speaker, and has been an active member of the Web Analytics Association since 2005. He maintains a blog about the challenges of data and measurement in the online advertising industry, at www.liesdamnedlies.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @ian_thomas; he is available on LinkedIn here.
Career History
| July 2006 – Present | Senior Director, BI/CI, Microsoft Advertising Runs Business Intelligence/Customer Intelligence platform for Microsoft’s global display advertising network; advises senior execs on business performance and facilitates data-driven decision-making. Ran Microsoft’s “Gatineau” project, an effort to create a broad-scale web analytics tool to compete with Google Analytics. |
| July 2000 – June 2006 | Director of Marketing & Development, WebAbacus/Foviance Co-founded company, which provided one of industry’s first and most flexible web analytics products. Led marketing & product management activities; oversaw 4 major releases of the product. Worked with CEO to secure seed funding; established partnerships with ad technology vendors and agencies to broaden portfolio. Following merger with The Usability Company in 2005, led rebranding effort for combined company and relaunched as Foviance. |
| Oct 1996 – June 2000 | e-Business Marketing Manager, Lotus Development Corporation Led go-to-market strategy & activities for Lotus’s “e-Business” offerings (web-based communication/collaboration software); acted as key spokesman for press outreach and led developer conference planning. Represented Lotus in key enterprise customer engagements. |
| Oct 1993 – Oct 1996 | Technical Pre-sales Specialist, IBM Provided pre-sales support to sales and marketing organization for IBM Software portfolio, especially OS/2. |
