After over 15 years at the company, Jerry Dischler, who oversaw Google Ads, decided to step down as executive…
After over 15 years at the company, Jerry Dischler, who oversaw Google Ads, decided to step down as executive. Vidhya Srinivasan will be taking over for Dischler, who has been with the company for fifteen years.
Instead of saying whether Dischler will remain with the firm, Google simply said that he would be taking on a “new challenge.” According to Google’s confirmation, the decision had nothing to do with the ongoing federal antitrust lawsuit.
About the New Executive
Introducing the newest member of management. Vidhya Srinivasan, who was in charge of ads’ product and engineering before, will now head up the advertisements team and will be directly answerable to Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan.
Ever since Srinivasan made the switch to Google from Amazon four years ago, she has been in charge of technical teams overseeing various ad products. Among these are positions associated with ad measurement tools, search and commerce ads, Google Analytics, and AI-powered campaign experiences. While at the helm, she oversaw the introduction of Performance Max and Demand Gen, redesigned Google Analytics, and introduced pixel-less measurement for YouTube ads.
Her work in recent years has been crucial in helping Google commercialize new generative AI experiences in Search (SGE) and in building tools for advertisers to use generative AI for campaign and asset creation. With her technical efforts aside, Srinivasan is also a sponsor of the Women in Ads Community at Google.
Who will take place of Vidhiya Sirinivasan
Srinivasan will be succeeded by Shashi Thakur, a 17-year Google veteran who will report on to her directly. Among Google’s foundational products, Shashi’s contributions were particularly noteworthy in the creation of Search, Discover, and Shopping. Work on long-term strategy inside Prabhakar’s Knowledge and Information organization was a part of his prolonged career.
With a concentration on Google Search for thirteen years, Shashi helped shape how people utilize the service, especially on mobile devices. Together with other engineering and product teams, he oversaw the launch of Google Knowledge Graph, an innovation that improved Search.
While at Google, Shashi was in charge of consumer shopping as general manager, which meant he was in charge of how the Search buying experience was evolving. When he was in this position, he put an emphasis on using conversational AI and augmented reality/3D technologies to make more inspiring experiences.
Dischler’s Tenure at Google
Jerry Dischler was instrumental in determining Google’s and the industry’s future in advertising. He was an early adopter of sophisticated advertising technologies, such as large-scale machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and guided Google through its shift from desktop to mobile. He also took a vocal stand against any invasion of user privacy.
Discher’s Testimony in Federal Antitrust Trial
During the federal antitrust trial, Jerry Dischler provided testimony stating that Google alters its auction processes for selling search advertisements, leading to a 5% increase in ad costs and reserve pricing for the typical advertiser. He went so far as to say that the IT behemoth may have jacked up costs by 10% for other requests. The tech firm may have even increased costs by 10% for some queries, he said, but Google has a tendency “not to tell advertisers about pricing changes.”
A representative from Google said in response to Dischler’s remarks:
- “Search ads costs are the result of a real-time auction where advertisers never pay more than their maximum bid. We’re constantly launching improvements designed to make ads better for both advertisers and users.”
- “Our quality improvements help eliminate irrelevant ads, improve relevance, drive greater advertiser value, and deliver high quality user experiences.”
