LA-based online advertising startup The Rubicon Project has picked former MySpace European VP Jay Stevens to lead a UK roll-out as VP and GM of international. Stevens was one of MySpace’s first non-US exec appointments when he helped found MySpace UK in 2006, but moved to be SVP of audience for the social net this March.

Rubicon, launched in the US in 2007, aims to help advertisers and publishers profit from unsold advertising space, which it says can be 70 to 80 percent of a site’s inventory, by running its SmartMatch technology to pull relevant ads from networks in to the most appropriate blank spaces.

CEO Frank Addante, in the release: “Up to 40 percent of visitors to US. websites come from outside the US. On-the-ground relationships with ad networks and other sales channels ensure that we’re fully optimising the value of our customers’ inventory around the world. Stevens had been international director for email marketing software vendor Silverpop; he says 44 percent of spend on display ads goes to ad networks.

—NetPlay: The interactive TV game operator is hiring former ITV (LSE: ITV) news and regional CEO Clive Jones as non-exec chairman. C21 reports.

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