Alex Khan relocates from Singapore to UK to become Unruly MD

Unruly, the video adtech company, has appointed former Oath and AOL executive Alex Khan as its first UK managing director since being acquired by Tremor International.

Khan is relocating from Singapore, where he was most recently managing director for Asia-Pacific at mobile advertising and monetisation specialist Smaato. During his tenure, he is credited with restructuring, reworking and reinvigorating the business’ go-to-market strategy in that region.  

He has previously held senior leadership positions at Oath (Asia-Pacific), AOL (Asia and Australia/New Zealand) and was head of agency sales at Yahoo UK (Oath, now known as Verizon Media, was formed by merging AOL and Yahoo assets in 2017).

Khan is also an advisor and innovation lead at WGI, an international education organisation that focuses on combating illiteracy around the world. 

He is the first person to hold the UK managing director role since Phil Townend, currently chief revenue officer for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, held the title from 2010 to 2012.  

The appointment follows Unruly's acquisition by Tremor from News UK in January. The Unruly brand is now the international arm of Tremor (outside the US). 

As UK managing director, Khan is tasked with accelerating Unruly’s growth in the UK and strengthening its offering as a unified platform for cross-screen video media services. 

Unruly is launching services across connected TV, in-app and instream amid a boom in online streaming services. Disney+ launched its subscription video-on-demand service in the UK and Europe earlier this year, as did the advertising-funded Roku Channel and Quibi, the new short-form video mobile app.

Tremor uses technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning at scale to enable data-driven mobile targeting and user acquisition. It bought RhythmOne, the digital ad specialist formerly known as Blink, last year and wants to scale internationally with two core revenue streams: mobile performance-based marketing and branded-video advertising. 

Steve Sottile, chief revenue officer at Unruly, said: "Our primary focus at Unruly since the Tremor International acquisition has been on our tech integration; ensuring our clients and publishers have access to our expanded range of premium ad formats and additional reach in supply. 

"It’s now time to ensure we have the right people and processes in place to accelerate our growth in key markets. Alex is a highly experienced and talented leader, and has a wealth of expertise in refining and driving a business’ goals in multiple regions."