Founder and former Chair re-elected to lead council through next 18 months.

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Internet Advertising Sales Houses (IASH) - the Committee founded to police the activities of sales houses and encourage best practice – has voted James Aitken, chairman of digital media incubator The Digital Tribe as its independent chair for the next 18 months. Aitken will act as the Council’s key spokesperson and head-up their monthly meetings, whilst serving to implement the IASH strategy of further educating the industry about the Council’s role and the significance of its Code of Conduct.

With around 14 years’ digital experience, Aitken was both a former founder and chair of IASH in 2005, and with extensive experience of advertising networks, established the company MediaBrokers in 2001, and Atlas Europe in 2002 which were both acquired by aQuantive in 2006 (and ultimately Microsoft).

Aitken succeeds Khalil Ibrahimi, managing director of Unanimis, who chaired IASH from January 2007.

IASH members wish to ensure that display ads placed via their networks do not appear on websites which could jeopardise advertisers' brands. The Code of Conduct provides a formal best practice framework for IASH Members to follow when dealing with advertisers, agencies, networks and site owners. In March 2008, all 17 of the audited subscribers to IASH passed the ABCe audit to become full members of the Council. The process is set to get more stringent going forward, as members will not be told in advance which month ABCe will audit. This latest ‘Random Month’ initiative is designed to further reinforce the robustness of the IASH Code of Conduct.

Khalil Ibrahimi, former chair of IASH and managing director of Unanimis said: “James Aitken’s re-election as Chair of IASH is good news for the largest council of the IAB in the UK. James intimate understanding of the technological issues at the heart of the online Ad industry and his specific knowledge of the ad network sector will be invaluable as the membership of IASH grows. As a successful entrepreneur who has built and sold businesses and is no longer operationally involved in this sector, his independence is assured and we look forward to him improving the understanding of IASH with the agency world as well as a broader church.”

• For more information contact Amy Kean