Rokt, the ecommerce technology company best known for squeezing more relevance (and revenue) out of every transaction, is strengthening its leadership bench. The company has created a new Chief Research Officer role and expanded its Ads organization—two moves aimed squarely at accelerating AI innovation and scaling its global footprint.
It’s a strategic play at a moment when ecommerce platforms are under pressure to personalize aggressively while maintaining speed, privacy, and efficiency. Rokt, already handling over 7.5 billion transactions in 2025, is making it clear: the next phase of competition will be won by whoever builds the smartest systems, not the biggest ad budgets.
A New Chief Research Officer to Shape Rokt’s AI Future
Reuben Kan, previously SVP of Engineering and a 15-year Google veteran, has been tapped as Rokt’s first Chief Research Officer. He’ll spearhead long-term research, oversee advanced AI initiatives, and build out partnerships with top academic institutions.
Kan’s mandate is simple—and ambitious: push Rokt deeper into the frontier of applied AI, optimization systems, and large-scale architectures. His move into this newly created role signals Rokt’s intent to elevate research from a supporting function to a strategic growth engine.
For an ecommerce infrastructure company that thrives on micro-optimizations at massive scale, the upside is obvious. AI models that tune transactional relevancy in real time aren’t just competitive advantages—they’re switching costs.
Rokt Ads Gets an Upgrade
The second major appointment comes from within. Jon Humphrey, formerly leading GTM delivery across several operational pillars, is now Senior Vice President of Operations & Advertising and joins Rokt’s executive committee. He’ll assume full responsibility for Rokt Ads on top of his existing remit.
Humphrey’s background at Wunderkind—where he scaled solutions for some of the largest global ecommerce brands—positions him well to expand Rokt’s advertising capabilities. As retail media networks surge and programmatic channels fragment, advertisers increasingly want platforms that unify multiple stages of the transaction journey. Rokt is betting Humphrey can strengthen that bridge.
Why These Moves Matter
While leadership announcements can feel routine, the implications here are meaningful:
- Rokt is elevating R&D to a core business driver, not a back-office function.
- AI is becoming its primary competitive moat, especially as rivals like Shopify, Amazon Ads, and Affirm push deeper into high-value personalization layers.
- Rokt Ads is moving toward a more integrated, globally scalable model, which matters as customer acquisition costs rise and brands demand measurable incrementality.
- The company is laying groundwork ahead of continued expansion, following 40% YoY revenue growth to $600 million in 2024.
If there were any doubts about Rokt’s long-term ambitions, recent moves make the picture clearer: the company wants to be the connective tissue of the post-checkout economy—and it’s staffing up accordingly.
Growing Momentum: Deals, Acquisitions, and a Stronger Board
These promotions follow an impressive run of activity:
- New board expertise with David Obstler (audit chair) and Matt Briers (advisor).
- New enterprise partnerships with Ulta Beauty, Albertsons, and Macy’s.
- Acquisitions of Canal, mParticle, and Aftersell, expanding reach across data infrastructure, retail media, and post-purchase commerce.
Put together, Rokt is shaping itself less like a niche optimization tool and more like a full-stack ecommerce performance engine—one that lives under the hood of the world’s biggest retailers.
The Bigger Picture
The ecommerce landscape is entering an era where AI-driven optimization is expected, not exceptional. Customer journeys are fragmented, margins are tight, and retailers want partners who can deliver measurable value inside the transaction itself—not just at the top of the funnel.
With a CRO focused on next-generation research and an expanded Ads leader tasked with execution, Rokt is betting its future on a simple formula: smarter systems → more relevance → more transaction value → more revenue.
And if they’re right, these promotions may end up being less of a personnel story and more of an inflection point for the ecommerce AI arms race.
