NEW YORK, May 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Operative today announced the appointment of Dang Ly as Chief Product Officer, signaling the company’s accelerating commitment to delivering the next generation of audience intelligence and data-powered solutions for the world’s leading media brands. Ly joins Operative to accelerate product innovation and help customers turn audience data into growth.
In this role, Ly will lead Operative’s product strategy and roadmap across the full portfolio that includes AOS, Operative.One, Adeline AI, and STAQ, deepening the company’s data unification capabilities, expanding its omnichannel intelligence layer, and accelerating AI integration across the product suite. The work advances Operative’s strategy to help customers move from fragmented insights to fully connected data ecosystems that drive monetization across every platform.
Ly has spent more than two decades scaling customer-facing products and building the data platforms beneath them across media, entertainment, hospitality, and retail. Most recently, as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Universal Destinations & Experiences, leading global enterprise technology transformation behind some of the most ambitious guest experiences in the industry. He oversaw the technology strategy that leveraged data and AI to unify customer, operational, and transactional data into the workflows, automation, and personalized experiences that define how millions of guests interact across every touch point.
Previously, Ly spent nearly a decade at NBCUniversal, where he led technology and engineering teams supporting ad sales. This included responsibility for core ad sales systems and data platforms, like solutions Operative customers navigate every day.
“Media and advertising is evolving rapidly, and the companies that can unify trusted data and turn it into personalized audience experiences will define the next era,” said Ly. “Omnichannel engagement and AI only deliver value when the data underneath is connected, reliable, and activated intelligently. Operative sits at exactly that intersection, and I’m energized to help our customers turn connected data into measurable, outcome-based growth.”
Ly’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the industry. As consumer behavior fragments across channels and traditional models give way to data-driven decisioning, the ability to normalize signals across disparate systems and activate them inside buying workflows has become the central competitive advantage. Operative sits as the connective tissue between media operations and audience intelligence, and Ly’s appointment reflects the company’s intent to lead that transformation.
“Dang brings something rare,” said Mike Napodano, CEO of Operative. “He has built audience data platforms at scale, and he has used them to deliver products that transform the way customers manage their business. He understands that 360-degree audience understanding isn’t a dashboard or a report, it’s an end-to-end discipline that starts with how you capture data and ends with how you act on it. That perspective is exactly what will shape Operative’s product roadmap as we help our customers grow in an AI-driven world.”
This new appointment sets up the company’s strategic focus on omnichannel data strategies and advanced analytics. With Ly’s leadership, Operative will continue to evolve its product portfolio to meet the needs of modern media organizations, grounding innovation in data, scaling across platforms, and enabling customers to turn insight into action.
About Operative
Operative is the preferred advertising management solution provider for over 300 of the world’s top media brands across 18 countries, including Fox, NBCU, Paramount, Disney/ABC, Seven Australia, and Sky. Operative brings unmatched solutions to manage digital, linear, and converged advertising workflows while connecting, unifying, and activating data across platforms. Since 2000, Operative has grown to process more than $60 billion in advertising revenue. https://www.operative.com/
Contact:
Emily Riley
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914-330-1128
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