Outbrain Appoints Sigrid Kirk to Head of Engage Product APAC & EEMEA

Outbrain, announced today the appointment of Sigrid Kirk as Head of Engage Product, APAC & EEMEA.

Sigrid is one of Australia’s most experienced Digital Publishing executives having spent over 10 years in several senior digital product roles, including Chief Product Officer at News Corp Australia & Fairfax.

Kirk will be based out of Outbrain’s Sydney office, while looking after premium publishers across Asia Pacific and EEMEA regions. She will report to Outbrain’s VP of Global Product Marketing, Matt Crenshaw.

In this newly created role, Kirk will work with leading publishers in APAC and EEMEA to drive innovation and adoption of Outbrain’s publisher platform ‘Engage’.

Engage is a technology that, through guided personalisation, gives both business and editorial teams within a publisher’s organisation the power to exert more control over how the content is managed across their properties. All the while actually increasing the likelihood that users see more the content they’re personally interested in more often.

“Outbrain’s Engage platform continues to evolve as we innovate through our work with publishers on critical areas such as guided personalisation across video, mobile and native advertising.” says Matt Crenshaw. “We want to work closely with leading publishers and deliver technology innovations that move the needle significantly for greater audience engagement and monetisation across different device types. Sigrid will play a key role in this by working closely with publishers across APAC and EEMA and help us drive our Engage roadmap better as well as roll out innovative capabilities in those regions”.

As part of her new role, Kirk will also be responsible for driving innovation and new product releases across the region.

Kirk said: “Having worked in publishing for many years, I’m a big believer in the power of great content, for publishers, brands and consumers. I also understand the importance and challenges around content distribution and amplification – the best content in the world has no value unless it is found and consumed, shared and acted upon. In an increasingly cluttered and fragmented media landscape, that challenge is only getting harder. Outbrain is singularly focused on solving that problem, and I’m really excited about the opportunity to work with some of the world’s best publishers and brands on helping them to get the right content, to the right people at the right time.”

The appointment is part of a global strategic commitment to grow and develop their partnerships with publishers and comes as the first senior product hire made by Outbrain in the APAC and EEMEA regions.

“Outbrain is evolving rapidly in APAC and EEMEA and Sigrid’s extensive knowledge of the publishing industry is exactly what we need to continue delivering innovative product solutions for our network of leading publishers,” says Eytan Galai, Managing Director, APAC & EEMEA, Outbrain.

“Sigrid’s deep understanding of publisher challenges, knowledge of the technology landscape, and proven track record of delivering innovative solutions in this space made her a perfect fit for Outbrain, and we couldn’t be happier to have her on board.“

The new senior hire comes after a series of significant growth milestones for Outbrain, including partnerships with leading Indian publishers including Indian Express, Network18, India.com, MTV India (Viacom) and ScoopWhoop.