Women to Watch 2022: Joanna Georges, The Trade Desk

Joanna Georges

Director, data partnerships, AUNZ
The Trade Desk 
Australia

Despite the year being 2022, women are still massively underrepresented in adtech—particularly in middle management and leadership ranks. The Trade Desk’s Joanna Georges is aware of this, and is using her own path of progression to mentor emerging women leaders to address this imbalance. Georges wants to ensure the pipeline is bulging with talent so that the next generation will not only see the pathway but understand how to walk down it. She is a vocal supporter for Women in Media, delivering webinars, hosting networking events with prominent media community members, and raising the importance of tech and data at high-profile journalist events.

When she’s not correcting the gender balance in the industry, Georges is busy innovating business solutions for the company. For instance, she helped to launch Australia’s first live optimisation tool with Flybuys to allow clients to optimise campaigns based on live sales; achieved 12 months of data usage growth across the ANZ market during the 2021 Covid period; and pioneered the launch of a new platform feature in partnership with a global data provider to improve geo-targeting by allowing clients-based targeting on specific varying weather conditions.

Georges also spearheads the Unified ID 2.0 conversation not just within The Trade Desk but across the industry, educating clients and industry players on post-cookie solutions. In fact, she’s one of the key members pioneering The Trade Desk’s first-party data playbook to guide brands and marketers to build their own first-data plans in preparation for the demise of third-party cookies.

Georges’ manager James Bayes couldn’t have put it better: “I think many young women in media would look to Jo and feel inspired by what she has achieved throughout her impressive career and in the short time she has worked within our organisation. I have no doubt Jo will continue to make a significant contribution to our organisation and the media industry and as the innovator and the natural-born leader she is”.