As part of IAB Tech Lab Summit: Welcome to the Agentic Web in New York City on May 28, 2026, CEO Anthony Katsur was delighted to announce the Service Excellence Awards for 2026. 10 awards in total were given to representatives of IAB Tech Lab Member companies who made significant contributions to our work over the past 12 months.
IAB Tech Lab is a member-driven organization that works to develop guidelines, write specs, develop technology and provide services in an effort to bring alignment and standardization to help the industry grow. This critical work only happens in partnership with dedicated individuals like this year’s award winners. Without them, initiatives like ARTF (the Agentic Real Time Framework) to power innovation in OpenRTB via containerization, OM SDK’s fraud-combatting Device Attestation feature set, and the Content Monetization Protocols (CoMP), along with many others, would not be possible.
This year’s award winners, as presented at our Agentic Summit, were as follows:
Agentic Evangelist: Mike Treon (PMG)
Mike Treon’s drive to test the agentic future of digital advertising has been an inspiration and a guiding light for the Agentic Task Force. PMG’s early integration of the Buyer Agent SDK in the AAMP (Agentic Advertising Management Protocols) framework was critical to ongoing development and testing, and set a path for running significant tests to prove out the value of agentic advertising.
ATV Innovation: Vinod Panicker (Amazon Ads)
Vinod has exhibited unquenchable determination to fight fraud at an industry level. He drove the design of device attestation within OM (Open Measurement) SDK, with a focus on securing CTV inventory, and has been tireless in his advocacy for the industry to adopt the solution and eliminate spoofed inventory in the CTV ecosystem.
Adoption Influencer: Chris Kane (Jounce Media)
We thank Chris Kane for his leadership in educating the industry on the many nuances of the Programmatic Supply Chain. His advocacy for the use of Tech Lab standards like ads.txt, sellers.json, SupplyChain object is unmatched. Sadly, Chris was unable to join us on the day due to a prior commitment.
Evangelist: Lindsey Van Kirk (People Inc.)
We honored Lindsey for her dedication to evangelizing the CoMP (Content Monetization Protocols) initiative. She has tirelessly educated the industry on the problem space surrounding decreasing human open web traffic and led the group to document solutions, including the recently released AI Bot Management Guidance.
Innovator: Stephanie Mazzamaro (The Arena Group)
Stephanie’s leadership and support for the promise of Trusted Server has been invaluable as we have pushed the product forward over the last year. Her drive to find new and innovative methods of monetization for publishers has pushed development of this vital open-source project further and faster.
Innovation Leadership: Curt Larson (Equativ)
It’s hard to narrow down any specific achievement for Curt Larson from an expansive list of contributions. He’s likely co-authored, drafted, discussed more standards over his tenure with Tech Lab than most. His leadership pushes working groups to be thorough, practical, and to move forward with a deep understanding of what problems need to be solved and why.
Privacy Hero: Andrea Wheeler (Quantcast)
Andrea is a crucial leading voice in the PRCG (Privacy and Rearc Commit Group). She consistently blends product strategy and privacy requirements to steer us in the right direction in the often-nuanced world of using technology to meet regulations and consumer expectations.
Technologists: Joshua Prismon (TransUnion) & Joe Wilson (Chalice)
Joshua and Joe have been the driving forces behind the Agentic Real Time Framework (ARTF), selflessly sharing their technology expertise, and knew when to work within existing parameters and when to push boundaries to solve critical industry problems. Their understanding of agentic and container technology, thoughtful application of these technologies, and approachable styles have driven innovation and collaboration across the industry.
Technology Innovation: Luke Corrigall and Index Exchange Engineering Team
Index Exchange has made prolific contributions to Tech Lab work over the years, and this year was no exception. They push the boundaries of technology to address efficiency issues in supply chain transactions, and lead with strategic guidance on the need for standards. It’s a full engineering team effort, led by leaders including Luke Corrigall, who accepted the award on behalf of the team.
We thank all the award winners for their service and support over the past year, and look forward to recognizing more excellence next year.
Barnaby Edwards
Sr Director, Product Marketing
IAB Tech Lab