40 Under 40 2022: Keisuke Meguro, OpenX

Keisuke Meguro

Country manager
OpenX 
Japan

Keisuke Meguro has spent a decade-long journey with programmatic ad exchange OpenX. Joining in 2013, right when the company entered the Japan market, Meguro has assumed six different roles at the organisation in that time—rising in ranks from manager to Japan’s country manager.

While the majority of Western adtech businesses fail in the Japanese market due to the industry’s low awareness regarding programmatic and market dominance of a few local players, under Meguro’s leadership and credibility, OpenX Japan has become the biggest and longest-running office in Asia.

Among his achievements at OpenX, during Covid, Meguro led his team to successfully secure 149 deals which includes onboarding new publishers, upselling existing publishers with new services, and working with agency partners on new programmatic direct deals. He has also built amicable business relations with Japan’s top four advertising firms, which has enabled OpenX to help advertisers reach wider audiences and maximise the value of their adspend.

Since assuming the role of Japan country manager, Meguro has streamlined the business, clearly outlining every employee’s role and responsibilities, thus setting a culture of accountability and reliability in the internal environment. His leadership style is that of a father figure, guiding his team in the right direction and giving credit where it is due. This style has proven successful for the business as Meguro has been able to bring in higher revenue-per-employee as well as increase overall productivity levels and team motivation.

Meguro, as an advocate and evangelist of adtech’s sustainability, is leading the industry by example. OpenX was recently certified as the ‘first carbon-neutral ad exchange’ in the world by Climate Impact Partners, having reduced its carbon emissions by 96%. Under Meguro’s leadership, OpenX Japan has reduced Scope 2 carbon emissions by cutting office rental and utilities costs—such as electricity, heating, and cooling—by 50% in 2020.

Prior to joining OpenX in 2013, Meguro worked for Novot, playing an instrumental role in launching and growing smartphone ad network Ad Maker which was acquired in 2011 by Mediba. He joined Mediba that same year as a business development manager where he directly managed nearly every strategic account and helped successfully launch KDDI’s House Agency Business (HAB).

Outside of adtech, Meguro keeps himself busy with sports and music. He was fondly known as DJ KURO by his friends thanks to his turntable talent which started from his college days until six years ago.