OpenX Appoints Robert Horler as Chief Executive Officer to Lead The Intelligent SSP’s Next Phase of Growth

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 2, 2026--

OpenX, The Intelligent SSP TM, today announced the appointment of Robert Horler as Chief Executive Officer. Horler will lead OpenX into its next phase of growth, focusing on the evolution of programmatic advertising through buyer-direct relationships, AI-enabled solutions, and enterprise software offerings.

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Horler joins OpenX at a time of momentum, with the company delivering 15 consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth. He brings three decades of leadership experience across media, advertising, and adtech, including operational responsibility for organizations generating more than $1 billion in revenue. Throughout his career, Horler has worked closely with product and engineering teams to translate technical differentiation into commercial value and bring data-driven solutions to market.

“Rob is a proven leader who knows how to grow businesses while staying close to customers and understanding their evolving needs, including agentic optimization,” said Tim Cadogan, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, OpenX. “His experience delivering operational excellence, driving profitable growth, and building strong cultures makes him the right leader to move OpenX forward.”

As AI reshapes how content is discovered and how media is bought, the technology that connects publishers and buyers is more important than ever. That moment calls for leadership that understands both sides of the ecosystem, and Horler’s experience makes him the right person to help OpenX make media work better for the people who run it and the people who experience it. That starts with helping partners build profitable revenue streams they fully control, through platforms like OpenXBuild TM, which delivers an independent identity graph, 100% cloud-native infrastructure, and AI enablement, all built on trust.

“OpenX has earned something rare in this industry: the trust of the publishers and buyers it works with every day,” said Robert Horler, CEO of OpenX. “I’ve sat on every side of the table, and with OpenXBuild, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver marketers both performance and ownership of data models while providing mutually beneficial monetization to publishers, and I’m excited to work with this team to accelerate what comes next.”

Prior to joining OpenX, Horler founded, built, and sold Diffiniti, a search and performance marketing agency, and served as CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network across the U.S. and Northern Europe, where he led sustained growth in revenue and earnings. In his most recent roles as CEO and then Board Member at Whalar, a leading global creator and social agency acquired earlier this year by Accenture, he supported the founders in scaling their company from 40 to more than 300 employees as they shaped the creator economy and turned influencer marketing into a data-driven discipline.

Horler has also held senior roles on the publisher side, at The Financial Times and News Corp, giving him firsthand perspective on the challenges publishers face in monetizing their content and audiences.

Horler assumes the role of Chief Executive from Joshua Metzger, who served as interim CEO and will continue as OpenX’s Chief Legal Officer.

“Josh’s most important contribution as acting CEO was to promote focus and execution across the organization, and we are very thankful for his leadership,” said Cadogan. “In returning to his role heading our legal strategy, Josh will be an important partner to Rob and a key contributor to the future direction of the company.”

About OpenX

OpenX is The Intelligent SSP TM (supply-side platform), simplifying advertising for marketers, advertisers, and publishers worldwide. As one of the largest SSPs globally, OpenX combines the industry’s only fully cloud-based infrastructure with leading AI capabilities to make digital advertising easier and more effective across every format, including CTV. Built to responsibly deliver quality, performance, and adaptability, OpenX makes digital advertising safer, smarter, and built for what’s next. Learn more at www.openx.com.

OpenX Appoints Robert Horler as Chief Executive Officer to Lead The Intelligent SSP’s Next Phase of Growth

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia bombed an aid distribution center and neighboring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 18 people.

Authorities said 10 guided bombs targeted an area that included a school building used to distribute humanitarian aid and a nearby shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The attack occurred a day after a localized ceasefire in the nearby Kherson region ended.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) —

Residents of Ukraine and Russia received phony emergency alerts from government-run mobile apps that were hacked, authorities in both countries said. The phony alerts in Ukraine included a warning about an imminent nuclear threat.

It was not clear if the attacks late Sunday in Ukraine and early Monday in Russia were related. Ukraine said its mobile app, which residents rely on to seek safety from Russian missile and drone strikes, was up and running again after being temporarily suspended. Russian authorities said efforts to restore its emergency alert mobile app were ongoing.

The cyberattacks came as a limited ceasefire expired Monday in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, where an agreement between Ukraine and Russia allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into front-line areas in Russian-occupied territory.

Ukrainian authorities reported multiple Russian drone attacks in the region early Monday, hours after the ceasefire ended.

A Russian Telegram channel with links to the country's security services said Monday that a hacking group, Hitcore, claimed responsibility for the breach of the Ukrainian emergency alert system. The Associated Press did not independently verify the claim, and the identities, affiliations or motivations of the purported hackers remained unclear.

The alerts received by Ukrainians — making false claims of high radiation levels, a chemical threat and public disturbances in Kyiv — were written in English, Russian and Ukrainian. The English language alerts contained spelling and grammatical errors.

One of the messages, written in Russian, said: “Hi! There will be a nuclear threat across Ukraine. Do not worry, the Oreshnik is incoming,” a reference to a Russian ballistic missile.

There was little indication the fake alerts caused panic in Ukraine. Instead, there was a flood of humorous posts online, with social media users sharing photos of their pets relaxing and apocalypse-themed images generated by artificial intelligence. A photo shared of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a former international kickboxing champion, included the message: “It’s a good thing we have a boxer for a mayor.”

In a Telegram post late Sunday following the breach, Ukraine’s air raid alert channel said “unauthorized parties” had interfered with the app’s operation and warned users not to click on links in “suspicious notifications.”

Ukraine's state-run Center for Countering Disinformation urged people to monitor other emergency channels on social media while the cyberattack was being addressed.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s air force command, Yurii Ihnat, said in a television interview that the cyberattack had no impact on Ukraine’s security and defense operations.

In a statement, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said hackers sent a false alert through its app at approximately 2:45 a.m. Moscow time on Monday across 33 of Russia’s 89 regions. It did not say who it believed carried out the attack.

The ministry said that the digital vulnerability exploited by the attackers had been identified and that “necessary measures” were being taken to prevent a similar breach. It also reassured Russians that the wider public alert system was working normally through SMS messages, media broadcasts and municipal sirens and loudspeakers.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said all of Russia’s state agencies were under the constant threat of cyberattacks, including a growing number that use artificial intelligence.

“All government bodies must take steps to improve the cybersecurity of our digital resources,” Peskov said.

As the ceasefire in Ukraine's Kherson region came to an end on Monday, the regional administration said that a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were hospitalized with blast injuries in the city of Kherson.

The brief pause in fighting, which began on Oct. 27, was part of a humanitarian aid and evacuation mission in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, and marked the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly five years ago.

Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Monday, Ukraine’s ombudsman and lead civilian negotiator for the mission, Dmytro Lubinets, said he hoped the localized ceasefire and evacuation would act as a “model” for other such efforts. He said it could “add to the momentum” of three-way negotiations between Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. officials expected this month.

Ukraine’s general staff said Monday that Russia’s military had bolstered its drone defenses and replenished ammunition supplies in the area during the ceasefire.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, emergency services reported that drone strikes injured 12 people in the eastern Kharkiv region and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and residential buildings.

Five people were also reported injured in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, where a warehouse was targeted and homes were damaged.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Monday that it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight, while the head of Russia’s Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said in a statement that local air defenses were repelling an aerial attack, but did not give further details.

Independent Russian media outlets later reported that Ukrainian drones had targeted one of Europe’s largest oil transport hubs in Samara.

Katie Marie Davies contributed to this report from Manchester, England.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This screenshot made on a smartphone shows a series of false alerts received late Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026 from an emergency alert mobile application that was subject to a cyberattack, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Third message in Russian reads "Hi! There will be a nuclear threat across Ukraine. Do not worry, the Oreshnik is incoming. Telegram channel: [link]", Fifth and sixth messages in Ukrainian read "Increased danger, Go to the shelter". (AP Photo) Photo taken with a smartphone.

St. Andrew's Cathedral in Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, is seen across the Dnipro River from the village of Kozatske, during a localized ceasefire linked to a humanitarian aid mission to Oleshky, Kherson region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A representative of the Nova Kakhovka administration walks past an unexploded Russian FPV drone during a localized ceasefire linked to a humanitarian aid mission to Oleshky, in the village of Kozatske, Kherson region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Oleh Tarabaka, head of the Nova Kakhovka military administration, left, and Vadym, a Ukrainian sergeant of the 42nd Marine Brigade, right, help evacuate Antonina, a local resident, as they walk past a destroyed residential building in an area contaminated with anti-personnel mines, during a localized ceasefire linked to a humanitarian aid mission to Oleshky, in the village of Kozatske, Kherson region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Rescue workers pull a family from the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)