John Wittesaele

EMEA President, John Wittesaele leads Xaxis and the specialist companies — Triad Retail Media, Light Reaction, Bannerconnect and Plista — in 25 markets. He formulates strategy and oversees operations to deliver growth across the region.
John has nearly two decades’ experience launching and growing adtech businesses. Prior to working at Xaxis, he was Managing Director (EMEA) at the worldwide consolidated digital-agency platform GroupM Connect.
The success of GroupM Connect’s industry-leading meta-DSP is a tribute to John’s leadership and his knowledge of the programmatic marketplace. Leading the company’s 2,000-strong team of engineers, data scientists, performance specialists and product managers, he built GroupM Connect’s technology ecosystem from the ground up.
Previous roles also include a time as the chief operations officer of the WPP company Quisma, a full-service WPP digital advertising agency, and the general manager of GroupM Interaction in Belgium. Working with GroupM Interaction, John played a key role in launching both Xaxis and Quisma in the Belgium market.
Before joining GroupM in 2012, John spent ten years at AdLINK/ Hi-Media in a variety of sales and management positions. His first whole-agency leadership role came in 2010, when he took over as managing director of Sanoma, the largest and most versatile media company in the Netherlands.
John has an MBA from Vlerick Management School in Brussels as well as a bachelor’s degree in communication management from Erasmus University, so digital advertising is really part of John’s DNA.