illumin Appoints Simon Cairns As Chief Executive Officer

Tal Hayek to retire as illumin CEO to become Non-Executive Vice Chairman

TORONTO, March 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- illumin Holdings Inc. (TSX: ILLM) (“illumin” or “Company”), a journey advertising technology company that empowers marketers to make smarter decisions about communicating with online consumers, today announced the appointment of Simon Cairns as Chief Executive Officer, effective April 15^th.

Mr. Cairns is a highly experienced executive with a successful track record driving growth and performance in technology, services, and SaaS platform companies. With over 24 years of strategic leadership, finance, marketing, operations, and business and corporate development experience, Mr. Cairns joins illumin at a pivotal point in the Company’s growth. 

Mr. Cairns most recently served as CEO of SPUD, western Canada’s largest online and omnichannel retailer of fresh foods and healthy products. At SPUD, he was responsible for returning the business to growth and high performance by focusing on continuously generating value for the customer, significantly increasing financial performance, organizational effectiveness, and brand value.

Before SPUD, Mr. Cairns served as CEO and GM of PNI Media, an enterprise-class ecommerce and value-added services SaaS platform provider that drove creation, ordering, production, and value-add services for the world’s largest retailers. In the past, he has held senior executive roles at organizations including Staples, ESPN, Simple Star and ACD Systems. Mr. Cairns successfully completed the executive leadership program at Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria.

Mr. Cairns succeeds Tal Hayek, who as previously announced will transition to Non-Executive Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors of illumin Holdings.

Tal Hayek, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of illumin, stated, “I am extremely excited Simon has agreed to serve as illumin’s next CEO. His outstanding leadership skills and expertise will be invaluable in guiding illumin during the next phase of the Company’s growth and development. Our business is well positioned for long-term growth with the growing adoption of our illumin platform. This revolutionary platform is rapidly transforming the programmatic advertising industry by providing brands unique insights with which they can more effectively manage their advertising and marketing campaigns from a singular, connected interface.”