Outbrain readies for Nasdaq IPO with senior appointment

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The Israeli content recommendation company has appointed former Check Point exec Ronen Koehler as head of staff.

Outbrain is bolstering its management structure ahead of its planned IPO on Wall Street. The Israeli company, which has developed a content recommendation engine for the Internet, today announced the appointment of Ronen Koehler as head of staff, a newly created position that includes leading overall organizational matters, management culture, procedures management, management support, and more.

For the past 13 years, Koehler was a senior executive at Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) serving for the past six years in the last six years worked as Global Head of Human Resources, reporting to the CEO. He has also served for over 30 years in the Israel Navy in active service and as a reservist including as a submarine commanding-captain. At Outbrain, he will also report directly to the CEO.

Outbrain CEO Yaron Galai said, “As Outbrain continues to grow at a rapid pace, creating a new position and placing Ronen Koehler as Head of Staff is a fitting next step. Koehler’s extensive background in software, technology and overall personnel management will play a key role in Outbrain’s 2015 expansion.”

It was recently reported that Outbrain filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a Nasdaq IPO at a company value of $1 billion. Outbrain was founded in 2006 and has raised $99 million to date. The last financing round was a year ago when the company raised $35 million led by HarbourVest and previous investors. Outbrain recently signed a multi-year contract with Time Media Group worth $100 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com