Xaxis has made two additions to its global leadership team, with John Wittesaele becoming EMEA president and Arshan Saha taking the post of Asia Pacific president.

The WPP-owned programmatic media platform has reshuffled its management following the departure former boss Brian Gleason and others to GroupM’s latest technology offering, [m]Platform.

With ex-EMEA president Nicolas Bidon stepping up to replace Gleason in the global role, Wittesaele will assume responsibility for leading Xaxis’ strategy and operations across the company’s 25 markets in the region, as well as its Triad Retail Media, Light Reaction, Bannerconnect and plista companies.

Wittesaele joins Xaxis from GroupM Connect, where he operated as EMEA managing director. He has also held senior positions at Quisma and AdLINK Media.

Saha, meanwhile, steps up from his previous role as Xaxis’ vice president, South and Southeast Asia, to lead the business across APAC. He replaces Michel De Rijk, who has also joined [m]Platform.

Since joining in 2012, he has helped to establish Xaxis in markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and India.

Commenting on the appointments, Bidon said: “[Wittesaele] has played a leading role in the development of programmatic advertising across the EMEA region and has a great track record of helping global advertisers adopt and deploy effective, data-driven marketing strategies.”

“[Saha] has played an integral role in establishing Xaxis as the programmatic advertising platform of choice in Asia Pacific. He has done an incredible job of expanding Xaxis’ programmatic footprint and building the region’s business with great management skills, passion for our clients’ success and knowledge of the industry. I look forward to his continued leadership as APAC president.”

In light of the recent acquisition of US retail media specialist Triad, Gleason told M&M Global last week that Xaxis has completed its shift from general programmatic buying platform to performance media specialist.

“Xaxis is projecting higher growth [in 2017] than this year,” he insists. “It is the largest outcome-based business in the world. More and more clients are asking for a guaranteed performance model, clients are looking for help with guaranteed sales.

“Xaxis sits at the intersection of sales and marketing. With Triad, they are as close to the transaction as you can get.”