Young Gun profiles takes a look at the young talent across the Australian advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector. Aiming to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
Manuela Lopez: senior account manager, advertiser solutions at PubMatic
Time in current role/time at the company:
I’ve been a senior account manager in the Ad Solutions team at PubMatic for one year now.
How long have you been in the industry?
I’ve been in the industry for three years: they’ve gone quickly!
How did you get here? Was this always the plan?
I have always wanted to work in the tech industry, but as an international student, it was a real challenge to get my foot in the door. In my last year of uni, when I was working at a hotel bar, I was lucky enough to meet Krish Raja and he gave me the opportunity to start my career at Captify on the sales team. Together with Maddie Basso, I helped them build the company in Aus. After two incredible years with them, I decided to move to my current role at PubMatic as I wanted to expand my knowledge and expertise across other areas of the tech industry.
Who is your right-hand person/who guides you day to day?
My manager Brittany Lefave. She has a breadth of experience in the industry, she is very supportive but also challenges me to find new ways of doing things or improving the status quo, which I love as it contributes to my growth and development.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
The people, I have met incredibly intelligent, genuine, and inspiring people from all over the world working in this industry, many of whom I now call friends. I love the fact that tech is an ever-changing industry, and you never stop learning and upskilling. I also love having the opportunity to work with global brands and learn from them.
And the biggest challenge?
As there is a high turnover of people within the agencies I work across, the biggest challenge is educating clients about our solutions and the ever-changing programmatic landscape. It is also quite difficult to explain to my parents in Spanish what I do.
Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?
As much as I love sales, in the future I’d love to explore the marketing world as I feel there’s a lot of room for creativity which I really enjoy, so it would be Emily Yri’s job, our VP of international marketing!
8) Where do you turn for inspiration?
Pinterest is always my go to when I need some inspo, but recently I also really enjoy journalling, there’s something magical about handwriting your thoughts and ideas down.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I design jewellery and sometimes I model.
In five years' time, I'll be:
The CEO of my own business.
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