Remembering Oath’s Jay Seideman: ‘He Was The Type Of Guy Many Of Us Strive To Be’

“Jay was one of the kindest and [most] honest people to grace this planet,” said Jivox CRO Moritz Loew, who was mentored by Seideman.

Barry Dougan, VP of display advertising at Microsoft, recalled Seideman’s tenure there from 2010 to 2015.

“Personally, Jay was the type of guy many of us strive to be,” Dougan said.

He had a rare combination of confidence, intelligence and dry wit, said Sean Finnegan, partner of Chameleon Collective.

And Seideman was a trailblazer – and a key contributor to the development of Microsoft’s programmatic display business, said Kya Sainsbury-Carter, VP of global partner service in Microsoft Advertising.

She remembered how he helped build the business by developing trusting relationships with strategic advertisers. Seideman’s leadership was inspirational, an alchemy of being collaborative and goal-driven.

“He was truly the loveliest person to work with and someone who raised the bar for our industry every day that he touched it,” Sainsbury-Carter said.

Eric Dahlberg, who supervised Seideman at Microsoft, added: “He handled every situation with just the right mix of professionalism, intellect and humor!”

A large part of Seideman’s friendships came from his willingness to take risks. Moorcroft, who worked with Seideman over the past 18 years, remembered how they would experiment together, unconstrained by conventional wisdom.

“What I personally loved more than anything was we got to create and try things together that no one else was trying at the time,” Moorcroft said. “It led to close friendships across the industry. His is a relationship I value and cherish, which makes this time so difficult.”

Tim Mahlman, Oath’s president of advertising and publisher strategy, recalled Seideman’s eternal optimism.

“His belief in doing what’s right made him unafraid to say what he felt,” Mahlman said in a statement to the Oath team. “He always knew how to motivate me, and he knew how to pick me up when things were not going well. Jay was always a glass half-full kind of guy. He lived by the belief that anything is possible if you want it badly enough. Even on bad days he somehow knew how to find the strength to show a smile, and he always put others first.”

Jay brought joy and passion to everything he did both professionally and personally, said ZergNet COO Brian White. “I always really admired him for that,” he said.

Added Mahlman: “I am so lucky to have been his teammate and even luckier to call him my friend. Thank you, Jay. You will be missed, brother.”

Seideman’s colleagues at Oath set up a Gofundme page to help support his family.

This post was syndicated from Ad Exchanger.