Humans of Digital spotlights the people shaping Canada’s digital advertising industry, celebrating their expertise, insights, and personal stories.
Meet Vlad Stesin
Job Title:
CEO, Co-Founder
Social: 
Company:
We enable media companies, brands, and technology platforms to collaborate securely using their data. And now with Agentic Collaboration, we’re introducing AI agents that can analyze, plan, and activate campaigns on behalf of humans — intelligently, transparently, and with privacy at the core.
What’s one project, campaign, or achievement you’re most proud of in your career so far?
I’m most proud of launching Optable. We’ve built the leading data collaboration platform in the country. Knowing that our work is helping the Canadian digital media ecosystem deliver real results is incredibly rewarding.
What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?
“Work on problems that matter, even if they’re hard to explain at first”.
That’s guided my career more than any tactical advice ever could.
What excites you most about the future of digital advertising in Canada?
Canada is ahead of many markets in adopting identity-driven solutions and embracing new ways for publishers and advertisers to collaborate on data. What excites me is that this shift isn’t just about solving today’s challenges — it’s about creating the foundation for the next wave of innovation. We’re already proving that collaboration around identity can deliver stronger business outcomes, and I believe Canada will continue to set the pace globally. The next step is agentic collaboration, where AI helps automate and orchestrate these workflows, making them even more seamless and intelligent. That’s a future I’m excited to see take shape here — and it’s exactly what we’re working on at Optable.
Which trends, tools, or innovations are you keeping your eye on this year?
Again, definitely AI. It brings new challenges and tough discussions for publishers, but if we look at the bright side, the most exciting trend is agentic collaboration — using AI to help automate parts of the data workflow, from audience recognition to activation. It’s still early, but we move fast. The potential to make audience management collaboration more intelligent and seamless is huge.
Getting Human
Coffee, Tea, or Something Stronger?
Coffee
Creative boost go-to?
“Acquired” – especially the epic episode on Novonordisk.
If your career were a movie, what would the title be?
“Future in Progress”
Complete the sentence – “The future of digital advertising in Canada is…”
…identity-driven, collaborative, and intelligent — with Canadian companies working together to help set the global standard.
Vlad believes progress happens when privacy, identity, and AI pull in the same direction. From building Optable to make secure data collaboration routine to advancing agentic workflows that analyze, plan, and activate with transparency, he champions outcomes that are measurable and shared across the ecosystem. He backs a Canada that collaborates at speed, sets standards the world can follow, and keeps people at the center of intelligent advertising.
Ready to lean in? Read more Humans of Digital stories and join IAB Canada to get involved in our committees, working groups, and cross-industry initiatives.