About Kevel — Our Story, Mission & Ad Tech Vision

Helping brands take back the Internet since 2010

Kevel offers the infrastructure APIs needed to quickly build custom ad platforms for sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads, and more. We are committed to helping publishers drive new revenue and take back the Internet from ad tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

The legacy of Adzerk

Kevel began as Adzerk in 2010 when software engineer James Avery wanted better tech for managing his network’s ads. While initially being JavaScript-based, Kevel quickly focused on server-side API ads as the future of the Internet. Soon, Kevel offered not just an API ad server, but infrastructure tools for companies to build their own ad products. Now, Kevel's product is a suite of APIs aimed at helping you drive revenue and take back the Internet from the ad tech giants.

We put our values in action

Make the internet a better place

We help innovative brands build user-friendly, privacy-focused ad platforms.

We delight our customers

We want to bring joy and excitement through moments of delight to our customers.

We are all adults

We reject micromanagement and trust our employees.

Always be crushing

We focus on delivering value and crushing it.

Embrace diversity

We fight to empower underrepresented groups.

Deliver innovation

We maintain a culture of engineering and creative problem solving.

Be open

We are dedicated to open source and sharing our knowledge.

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Presence

Kevel’s commitment to remote-first work allows us to thrive in major locations across the globe.

Durham

California

Texas

New York

London

Porto

Copenhagen

Singapore

Meet the leadership team

James Avery

Chief Executive Officer

James Avery is the founder and CEO of Kevel. Prior to Kevel, he co-founded TekPub, a platform that delivered high-quality screencasts for developers. Over the past 20 years, James has built multiple startups, written code across tech stacks, and authored books for O’Reilly, Wrox, and Microsoft Press. He is also an investor and advisor to multiple startups and serves on the board of MuukTest.

Jaclyn Nix

Chief Operating Officer

Jaclyn Nix is Kevel’s Chief Operating Officer, bringing over 18 years of experience in retail media and ad tech. She has led the operational scaling of 40+ retail media businesses, including the 2020 acquisition of the Mi9 Retail Media Network (formerly MyWebGrocer) by CitrusAd, establishing the US footprint. One year later, CitrusAd was acquired by Epsilon. Since then, she served as EVP, Brand Sales at Epsilon Retail Media (formerly CitrusAd), where she led sales teams across various retail verticals and drove impactful strategies leveraging first-party data. Jaclyn is passionate about operational excellence, cross-functional alignment, and delivering measurable value to customers.

Tim Ewald

Chief Technology Officer

Tim Ewald is Kevel’s CTO, and has spent the last 30 years building distributed software systems to solve problems in a wide range of domains, including image analysis, content management, video processing, databases, and ad tech. He brings his experience as an engineer, architect, and engineering manager to Kevel, where he is responsible for the entire cloud platform. Tim is an author and conference speaker, who holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Hampshire College. Outside of the office, he builds furniture using hand tools.

Tom Shanahan

Chief Financial Officer

Tom Shanahan brings 20+ years of expertise in financial strategy and operational leadership across retail media, ad tech, and large-scale organizations. Prior to joining Kevel, Tom served as VP, Global Head of Finance at CitrusAd, where he drove financial strategy and operational initiatives during transformative growth, including CitrusAd's acquisition by Epsilon. Earlier in his career, Tom held finance leadership roles at Epsilon, Sears Holdings Corporation, and GMX Real Estate Group. His background combines advanced financial modeling, strategic planning, and operational precision. Tom is passionate about aligning financial excellence with long-term strategy and supporting cross-functional teams in achieving objectives.

Mike Kohn

Chief People Officer

Mike Kohn leads the People and HR function at Kevel. Mike’s foundational experience as an HR Business Partner and as a human capital consultant at Deloitte launched him into his roles as a People executive and leadership coach at various scaling organizations. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Mike is passionate about building healthy, inclusive cultures where people can bring their whole selves to thrive. Beyond work, he spends time at spin classes, running, playing board games, hiking, and watching musical theater.

James Avery

Chief Executive Officer

Jaclyn Nix

Chief Operating Officer

Tim Ewald

Chief Technology Officer

Tom Shanahan

Chief Financial Officer

Mike Kohn

Chief People Officer

John Chaplin

Chief Product Officer

John Chaplin brings extensive experience in product management, retail media, and digital innovation. Based in Adelaide, Australia, he began his career in product design and engineering before co-founding award-winning agency Fusion, developing deep expertise in digital strategy, digital transformation and user experience. He later served as Chief Product Officer at CitrusAd, shaping a revolutionary retail media platform, before leading product as SVP at Epsilon Retail Media. Across these roles, he built a reputation for delivering personalised, scalable product experiences for retailers and advertisers. As Chief Product Officer at Kevel, John brings a customer-first approach and a passion for building great products that redefine the retail media landscape.

Dylan Hulser

VP of Retail Media

Dylan Hulser is Kevel’s Vice President of Retail Media, bringing over nine years of experience on the company’s commercial team. His journey at Kevel has spanned roles across Sales, Solutions, and Customer Success, including the creation of the Solutions Architecture team. Today, Dylan leads Kevel’s retail media charge, connecting brands and retailers with consumers through innovative ad serving solutions. He holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Ithaca College and began his career in digital media buying for Procter & Gamble brands at MediaVest (now Spark). Dylan later joined Reddit where he played a key role in advertising strategy, operations, and monetization. Outside of work, Dylan enjoys exploring new restaurants, traveling, and spending quality time with his family.

Leslie Pierce-Connor

General Counsel

Leslie Pierce-Connor has spent her career bootstrapping legal functions at startups, helping to build out the first-ever legal department at multiple growth-stage companies. She brings intensely practical experience in both legal operations and legal practice to the organization, with an emphasis on developing scalable, repeatable processes. Leslie also provides legal consulting services to charitable organizations. When not working, Leslie is an outdoor enthusiast, a calligrapher, a foodie, and a mom to both a two year old son and a six year old labrador retriever.

Sandy Grason

SVP, Product & Engineering

Sandy Grason has spent her career building lean, agile, high-performing teams. Prior to joining Kevel, Sandy was the Senior Director of Software Development at Charter Communications where she was responsible for the strategic direction and management of the backend video software development. Sandy is a former CEO, business strategist, consultant, published author, serial entrepreneur & mentor, lover of chocolate, movies, skiing & shoes (not necessarily in that order).

Andrew McManamon

VP of Global Sales

Andrew McManamon brings over 20 years of experience across media planning, agency, broadcast, and advertising technology. He began his career as a media planner before moving into agency account management, building a strong foundation in commercial strategy and media buying. He later transitioned into ad tech, working at Specific Media (later Viant) and WideOrbit, giving him a unique perspective across both the buy and sell side of the advertising landscape. Since joining Kevel seven years ago as the company’s first hire in Europe, Andrew has been instrumental in building and expanding Kevel’s international presence. Today, he leads global sales efforts, partnering with commerce media companies to build and scale high-performing retail media businesses.

John Chaplin

Chief Product Officer

Dylan Hulser

VP of Retail Media

Leslie Pierce-Connor

General Counsel

Sandy Grason

SVP, Product & Engineering

Andrew McManamon

VP of Global Sales

Joe McCorkle

VP of Sales, US and Canada

Joe brings over 20 years of experience across retail, commerce media, strategy, and merchandising. He began his career in IT at John Deere, moved into investment management at Aegon, and then joined H-E-B in price optimization and merchandising. At Revionics, he led presales, consulting, and sales, helping retailers modernize pricing strategies. He later served as VP of North America Sales & Partnerships at Criteo, partnering with retailers and brands to drive commerce media growth. Today, he leads North American Sales at Kevel, helping retail media organizations build scalable, high-performing media businesses. Outside of work, Joe is an avid traveler, having visited 63 countries and counting, with a passion for new cultures, great food, and meaningful connections.

Martin Jensen

GM of Nordics

Martin Jensen is the VP of Partnerships at Kevel and the founder of Nexta, an AI-driven ad platform acquired by Kevel in 2025. Since founding Nexta in 2017, he has consistently focused on helping media companies, marketplaces, and retailers drive revenue growth. At Nexta, Jensen championed a strategic partnership model, working with publishers and marketplaces around the world to create tailored omnichannel advertising solutions with proven impact. Before his time at Nexta, Jensen built up his expertise in programmatic advertising at Adform. Today at Kevel, he draws on his extensive experience and passion for innovation to lead partnership efforts that help brands build transformative ad solutions and achieve sustainable long-term growth.

Jesper Urban

VP of Engineering

Jesper Urban is the VP of Engineering at Kevel, having joined the company through its acquisition of Nexta -- a company he co-founded and grew from a two person startup to a global scale-up with clients across Europe and North America. With more than 21 years of experience in software engineering and product management -- including 16 years in B2B SaaS and ad tech -- Jesper brings deep technical and strategic expertise to his role. Before founding Nexta, he served as VP of Product at Adform, where he led the development of programmatic products and helped scale the company into Europe’s largest ad tech platform. Outside of work, he enjoys sailing, Danish summers, and spending quality time with his loved ones.

Paulo Cunha

VP of Product

Paulo has been building products for the digital marketing and advertising industry for over 18 years. After completing his BSc in Computing from London Met, he started his career developing products at companies such as Acxiom and Wunderloop – Europe’s first behavioral targeting technology. Paulo later founded ShiftForward, where he launched products such as the Private CDP and the Ad Forecaster and served as CEO, completing its exit to Velocidi in 2018 and later to Kevel in 2022. Paulo also helps tech startups as a board advisor and as a mentor in the Founders Founders community which he helped create in Porto, Portugal.

Kate Gadzinski

VP of Revenue Operations