Zach Rodgers is the editorial director of the mighty AdExchanger, founded by John Ebbert 12 years ago and still representing the pinnacle of ad tech journalism. In fact, we’re lucky as an industry to have such a voice. He joined the editorial team more than nine years ago and has been a key influence on its integrity, quality and growth – as a writer, recognizer of talent (often quite young talent), event shepherd, manager, editor, source wrangler, MC and raconteur. In the latter role, he’s hosted the 226 episode-strong and counting AdExchanger Talks podcast, which has seen just about every ad tech influencer shuffle behind its mike. A part-time vegan and all-around mensch, Zach started at ClickZ and other trade pubs before entering ad tech history & legend. In this episode, he talks about his childhood dreams (many), his initial opinion of advertising (not so hot), how he met John Ebbert, AdExchanger’s legendary first event at the New York Historical Society, his pursuit of Brian O’Kelley, gender bias at ad tech events, and the future of his storied pub. (Also check out Zach’s side hustle, a podcast called Beaconites about his beloved hometown of Beacon, NY aka ‘the New Brooklyn‘.)