GROUP
Executive Team
Mickaël Ferreira
Chief Executive Officer
Mickaël Ferreira began his career in an agency before joining Advertising.com, a subsidiary of AOL. In 2010, he joined the group to launch its performance offering and supported its technological transition by launching one of the largest advertising marketplaces in Europe in 2011. In 2014, he co-founded Quantum Advertising. Since 2019, he has been assisting the group. He is the Chief Executive Officer since August 1, 2021.
Julie Duong Ferat
Chief Administrative and Financial Officer
Julie Duong Ferat was promoted to Chief Administrative and Financial Officer of the Group in 2014. She joined the Group’s Financial Management in 2009 as Financial Control Manager, overseeing all French and international subsidiaries. In this role, she was notably responsible for preparing consolidated financial statements under IFRS standards and budget reporting. Julie Duong Ferat began her career in Financial Audit in 2006 at KPMG. She holds degrees from the Institut Supérieur Du Commerce (ISC Paris) and the University of Paris XII.
Vincent Delmotte
General Manager, AdUX Belgium
Vincent Delmotte launched one of Belgium’s first internet advertising agencies, RMB Online, in 1997. In 2003, he took charge of business development at PublicityWeb, a pioneering agency in SEO/SEA. Since 2007, he has served as Managing Director of AdUX Belgium. Over the past three years, he has also launched AdExpert (Trading Desk) and Quantum (Native Advertising) in the Belgian market. Vincent is also the Treasurer and Vice President of the BMMA (Belgian Management and Marketing Association).
Board of Directors
Catharina Hillström
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Graduated from the University of Gothenburg, she has significant international professional experience gained mainly in the finance sector at Standard Chartered Bank and Crédit Agricole. In addition, Catharina Hillström has an experience within the financially regulated benchmark industry as the CEO of a Swedish regulated interest rate benchmark administrator.
Catharina Hillström also has entrepreneurial experience with the launch of a pioneering mobile fundraising company in Sweden and the organisation of fundraising events for SOS Children’s Villages and Amnesty International.
Eleonora Pitasso
Administrator
Eleonora has been working as a professional in the luxury industry for more than two decades and got specialised in a sales and business development role.
Italian national and based in Monaco, she’s been working for more than ten years at BURGESS, a British brokerage firm that received the Queen’s Awards for Excellence for the ethos and company’s work manner in 2001 and currently present in 16 offices worldwide.
Prior to joining BURGESS, Eleonora has progressed in the luxury world segment between the European and North American markets and she is a very active member of the yachting and Monaco community, with several roles in the industry associations and related memberships.
Eleonora holds a Bac+6 in Sciences-Po from the European Institute and the University of Trieste. She also holds an Advanced Strategic Management Certificate from EDHEC.
She benefits from a wealth of connections in the luxury world, the Principality of Monaco and in the yachting industry and she will able to contribute to the Board’s discussion on a customer relationship and commercial point of view.
Joost Merks
Permanent administrator of Azerion Tech Holding BV.
Joost Merks has been an entrepreneur for over 15 years in the digital industry. During this period, Joost launched and managed several Dutch and international companies in the advertising and digital media industry.
During this period, Mr Joost Merks was also a member of the SRC advisory team for the regulation of children and young people.
From 2015, Mr. Joost Merks joined the Azerion Group and became one of the driving forces behind the company’s exponential growth in his role as Head of Mergers and Acquisitions. During this period, Mr. Joost Merks was responsible for more than 25 company acquisition transactions for the Azerion group.
Mr. Joost Merks has an important network in the European digital industry and local business communities.
Mr. Joost Merks has extensive experience in strategy, corporate finance, international business and mergers and acquisitions. His driving force is to take business to the next level.
Corporate Biography
AdUX (for Advertising User eXperience), formerly known as HiMedia, was founded in 1996 by Cyril Zimmermann. AdUX is a pioneer in digital marketing, with a presence in six European countries. Independent since its inception, the group is listed on the C compartment of Euronext Paris and is part of the CAC Small, CAC All-Tradable, and CAC PME indices.
From the 2000 Internet bubble to ad blockers and the rise of smartphones, AdUX has experienced all the major evolutions in digital advertising.
The group is distinguished by its ability to innovate, anticipate market trends, and adapt. Its longevity, experience, and expertise make it a key player in digital marketing in Europe.
In 1996, the 3 Suisses corporate foundation awarded Cyril Zimmermann and Bruno Laforestrie a grant to fund their business project. The two partners developed their activities and then separated them in 1998, with HiBox—led by Bruno Laforestrie—focusing on publishing and radio operations, and HiMedia—led by Cyril Zimmermann—aiming to grow content publishers’ revenues through online advertising, a nascent but highly promising market.
HiMedia quickly gained recognition in the Internet sector thanks to the reputation of its early partners, including the website of the weekly magazine *Marianne* and the site Jeuxvideo.com, which it would later acquire. Its success led to its listing on the Paris Stock Exchange in June 2000.
While the burst of the Internet bubble led to the downfall of many startups, HiMedia adapted its structures and survived. By the mid-2000s, as growth returned, HiMedia successfully established itself in Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Brazil.
Cyril Zimmermann then diversified the group’s activities towards a growing sector: electronic payments. In 2006, HiMedia notably acquired the micropayment platform Allopass. Having become a specialist in monetizing digital content through advertising or transactions, HiMedia gained market share and the trust of major French and international publishers.
Starting in 2014, learning from the evolution of digital media, HiMedia streamlined its activities by divesting its website publishing and electronic payment branches, valued at over 150 million euros. At the same time, the company realized that internet users were increasingly rejecting online advertising due to its intrusive nature.
HiMedia then decided to place user experience at the center of digital marketing by developing advertising products that meet three key criteria: the ads must be native (integrated into the websites), they must provide an immediately noticeable benefit that users can take advantage of near them (through geolocated ads linked to promotions or discount coupons), or they must be entertaining.
HiMedia rebranded as AdUX and focused on the 2 most promising segments of digital advertising: native advertising through its subsidiary Quantum, and geolocated advertising via its subsidiary AdMoove.
