AdTech Pioneer Joe Zawadzki Takes Leadership Role at Collective Audience Amid Industry Expansion

The digital advertising sector is experiencing unprecedented growth, with market projections indicating a compound annual growth rate of 14.7% through 2031, eventually reaching $2.9 trillion according to Allied Market Research. Against this backdrop of rapid industry expansion, Collective Audience, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAUD) has named Joe Zawadzki as chairman of its board, positioning itself to capitalize on this transformation.

Strategic Leadership Appointment

Joe Zawadzki brings more than two and a half decades of hands-on experience shaping the advertising technology landscape. His career demonstrates a pattern of identifying emerging market opportunities before they become mainstream. Most notably, he founded and led MediaMath, establishing the demand-side platform category that fundamentally changed how brands approach digital marketing. His current venture, FxM, addresses a critical pain point in media supply chains—an estimated 20% financing tax embedded within the ecosystem that inflates costs across the industry.

CEO Peter Bordes characterized the appointment as a natural fit, emphasizing that Zawadzki’s track record of innovation aligns with Collective Audience’s mission to streamline the complex advertising ecosystem. The newly Nasdaq-listed company has undergone a merger and rebranding, repositioning itself as a platform that leverages audience data and artificial intelligence to optimize advertising effectiveness for brands, agencies, and publishers.

Building an Innovation Portfolio

Beyond his chairmanship role, Zawadzki maintains involvement with multiple ventures reflecting his commitment to digital transformation. He serves as general partner at Aperiam, a venture capital firm investing across the innovation spectrum from early-stage startups to growth-stage companies. His portfolio has demonstrated remarkable returns—his angel investments in over 70 companies, including MOAT, IAS, AppNexus, Credit Karma, and Dataminr, have generated cumulative exit valuations exceeding $10 billion.

His board responsibilities extend across industry infrastructure, including positions at MINT (Advertising Resource Management), the MMA, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), underscoring his role as a bridge between emerging technologies and established industry standards.

Market Positioning and Vision

Zawadzki’s perspective on the industry’s future emphasizes the interconnected nature of modern advertising. As companies increasingly operate as both marketers and media entities, advertising has evolved into a foundational economic engine. This shift creates opportunities that exceed the capacity of any single organization, suggesting that collaborative platforms like Collective Audience address a genuine market need.

The platform itself represents a structural shift in how the advertising ecosystem operates, introducing transparency and efficiency through data-driven, performance-focused solutions. By aggregating complementary technologies and leveraging artificial intelligence, Collective Audience aims to eliminate friction points that have historically plagued the digital advertising supply chain.

Education and Early Career

Zawadzki holds a degree in English from Harvard University and earlier served as a teaching fellow in cosmology, set theory, and history of science—a background that suggests his approach to problem-solving integrates both humanistic and analytical perspectives. His transition from academia to entrepreneurship laid the groundwork for decades of industry leadership and repeated success in identifying structural inefficiencies ripe for disruption.