Rakuten Rewards, the leading Cash Back shopping platform and a subsidiary of internet services giant Rakuten Group, Inc., has promoted Julie Van Ullen to Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Reporting to Rakuten Rewards and Rakuten International CEO Amit Patel, Van Ullen will lead the company’s revenue-generating, sales support and product marketing operations.
Van Ullen was previously Managing Director and Head of Revenue at Rakuten Rewards, where she oversaw monetization strategies to bring the best merchants, consumer experience, and value to Rakuten members. Under her leadership, the company experienced an average of 17 percent year-over-year growth and increased its retail merchant base by 32 percent. Van Ullen first joined Rakuten in 2018 as General Manager and later Managing Director at Rakuten Marketing (now Rakuten Advertising), where she led the United States commercial operations of a global leader in performance-driven, brand-driven and people-driven digital ad solutions.
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“Julie’s leadership as Managing Director and Head of Revenue was instrumental to the recent growth of our media business and record-setting revenue performance,” said Amit Patel, CEO at Rakuten Rewards and Rakuten International. “We’re delighted to have a recognized and seasoned digital advertising principal like Julie to help us continue building a world where everyone is rewarded for their participation. With Julie here to further scale our best-in-class sales and product marketing operations, we are primed to deliver more rewarding experiences than ever for members and merchants.”
“Rakuten is an undisputed leader in strategic performance marketing, offering the unique combination of scale, influence, personalized targeting, a highly engaged audience, and an unparalleled ability to incentivize conversion,” said Julie Van Ullen, CRO at Rakuten Rewards. “I’m excited to collaborate with retailers, travel companies and many other merchants who depend on their customers’ loyalty and connect them with millions of new customers and incentives to drive discovery and spend.”
With more than 17 years of advertising and sales experience, Van Ullen is an industry veteran who has driven growth and success for many of the advertising technology industry’s most successful businesses, including in leadership roles at Comcast, FreeWheel and OpenX. She has also been a persuasive voice in industry-shaping working groups, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), where she was previously vice president of Member Services and a member of its prestigious Board of Directors.
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