MadConnect and OUTFRONT Media partnering to drive AI-enabled DOOH. Read More in AdExchanger→
MadConnect and OUTFRONT Media partnering to drive AI-enabled DOOH. Read More in AdExchanger→
When we launched the company, our mission was to help organizations solve some of the most complex data and connectivity challenges in marketing and advertising. What we’ve learned–and what the market has shown us–is that connectivity isn’t just a part of the solution. It is the solution.
As we built reference architectures for customers, we found that MadConnect was the throughline–powering data movement, platform communication, and orchestration across every engagement. What started as one offering, become the foundation of everything we do.
Now, with the rise of agentic marketing and the demand for intelligent automation, MadConnect has taken on an even more essential role. Organizations don’t want to rip and replace their tech stacks–they want to AI-enable what they already have. MadConnect is how they do that: it powers orchestration across existing platforms, without requiring rebuilds or re-architecture.
The evolution to MadConnect reflects the journey we’re already on. MadConnect is the foundation of our business, and the platform around which all business value is delivered. Since its founding, MadTech has become a trusted partner to global brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms.
Born in 2021, MadConnect (then MadTech) was founded by Bob, Heather, and Laura as a product-and-data led consultancy.
Led by the founders and the rest of the executive leadership, the MadConnect team reaches well beyond the Eastern seaboard numbering into the 100s (and growing). The team is a wickedly talented and international group working together to support our partners and solve the toughest challenges in AdTech and MarTech.
We are technology, product and go-to-market specialists with deep expertise in data, identity, and programmatic advertising from some of the top companies in our industry.
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Bob Walczak is the founder and CEO of MadTech Advisors, a technology and consulting practice focused on helping brands, publishers and agencies craft and implement effective advertising tech stacks and first-party data strategies. Bob is a seasoned digital advertising executive with over two decades growing revenue inside of major advertising operations.
Most recently, Bob was appointed Executive Vice President of Global Product for Xaxis, a programmatic audience business inside of WPP’s GroupM media buying division. Prior to joining Xaxis, Bob served as CEO of Light Reaction (a Xaxis company) where he grew revenue from $80 to $120 million in a single year, expanding the business from 28 to 32 markets globally. Before Light Reaction, Bob drove revenue and user adoption as General Manager for BidSwitch, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Criteo, doubling its client base in a year’s time and growing the platform’s revenues by over 500 percent to $125 million in annual revenue. Bob also developed PubMatic’s (NYSE:PUBM) mobile and emerging media business from inception to more than $100 million in annual revenue in under three years.
Bob is widely recognized as a pioneer in the ad tech industry, starting his career founding Ringleader Digital in 2005. As founder and CEO, he led one of the first companies to develop a comprehensive mobile ad server with patented mobile ID technology.
Bob holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a specialization in finance and marketing from the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver.
With more than 15 years of digital media experience, Heather Macaulay is a seasoned revenue leader with a strong background in sales, business development and B2B marketing. Heather joined MadTech as President in 2022 where she is responsible for new business growth and marketing.
Prior to MadTech, Heather held leadership roles at Zoom, where she led global ads monetization, and at Publishers Clearing House, leading revenue growth, programmatic, data strategy and marketing for the media division. She served as Vice-President of Emerging Media at PubMatic, overseeing revenue growth and global team expansion for mobile, video and ad serving.
Heather has also taught at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, teaching mobile marketing as an adjunct professor. She has also served as Co-Chair of the Fundraising Committee for Women in Wireless/mBolden and was voted as a Top Woman to Watch in Mobile in 2010. She has spoken in front of audiences at Advertising Week, BeetTV, Brand Innovators, M1 Summit, Mediapost and more.
Heather is a graduate of Providence College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History. Outside of work, Heather enjoys life as a wife and mom to three young boys.
Laura McElhinney is a pioneer in data usage and compliance within the advertising industry. With extensive expertise in strategizing product roadmaps, driving innovation and navigating organizational hierarchy, she helps businesses evolve to meet modern marketing’s present and future. Laura joined MadTech as Chief Data Officer in 2023, overseeing the company’s MadConnect connector hub and playing an integral role in MadTech’s consulting business.
A passionate, empathetic, forward-thinking executive, she gets to the heart of the issues plaguing clients across the landscape. Across nearly three decades in the media and advertising industry, Laura has created new roles at critical junctures of the media industry’s rapid evolution, ultimately becoming Horizon Media’s first Chief Data Officer in 2017. In that role, she was the primary architect of blu., Horizon’s proprietary data platform. Prior to Horizon, she spent nearly 20 years at Havas Media.
With her experience, Laura serves as a guide for organizations in and outside the ad industry. She currently sits on the board of the University of Vermont and serves as an advisor for several ad technology companies. Laura enjoys spending time with her five children and splits time between New York and Boston.
Denise Vardakas is the Vice President of Marketing at MadConnect, where she leads brand, demand, and go-to-market strategy for the company’s Intelligent Connectivity Layer (ICL). With over 15 years of experience growing B2B and B2C brands, Denise is known for transforming complex technology into clear, customer-focused marketing that drives results.
She’s a hands-on marketer and collaborative leader with deep experience across content, paid media, sales enablement, events, and integrated campaigns. Over the years, she’s held key marketing roles at companies including DataXu (acquired by Roku), dunnhumby, Walmart Luminate, Vyatta (acquired by Cisco), Ribbit (acquired by BT), and Singularity University.
At MadConnect, Denise is helping shape the company’s voice in the market, positioning the ICL as the critical infrastructure layer that allows marketers to activate data, move faster, and improve outcomes with AI-ready stacks.
Nicole Evans is Vice President of Operations at MadConnect, where she turns strategic ideas into operational reality—building the systems, processes, and cross-functional alignment that fuel the company’s growth. With 15+ years of experience across tech, media, and startups, she brings a sharp eye for solving complex problems and a collaborative mindset that helps teams move faster, smarter.
Nicole has led initiatives across strategy, marketing, partnerships, and operations—often at the early and growth stages of companies. At MadConnect, she plays a key role in bringing the Intelligent Connectivity Layer (ICL) to life, ensuring that what’s built not only works, but scales.
Sandro Camarao is the Senior Director of Product Management at MadConnect, where he leads product innovation focused on turning complex data into smarter marketing outcomes. With a deep background in data strategy and identity resolution, Sandro brings a hands-on approach to solving the challenges brands face around fragmentation, activation, and scale.
His expertise spans data wrangling, cross-device identity, and audience curation, helping businesses unlock the full potential of their first-party data and drive more effective advertising. At MadConnect, he plays a key role in evolving the company’s Intelligent Connectivity Layer (ICL), ensuring it meets the real-world needs of marketers looking to unify their tech stacks and get AI-ready without added complexity.
Sandro is passionate about building products that make data more usable, more connected, and more impactful.
