Trade Desk Rehires Co-Founder Pickles to Lead New CTO Council

By Tom Whitfield

The Trade Desk has brought back co-founder Dave Pickles to lead a new CTO Council, three years after he left the company and its board, and with the stock sitting 91% below its peak. He will work with engineering and product teams on the adtech firm's core technology and product roadmap.

The company announced the move one week before its third-quarter earnings report, due Nov. 9. Pickles has stayed on as an advisor since his 2023 departure.

CEO Jeff Green cast the return as a reset for a company at what he called a pivotal moment. "I'm so excited Dave is back. I've missed working with him," Green said in a statement. "We've had so many successes together over the years, and I'm energized to take all of that history and point it toward the future. This is a pivotal crossroads for our company and the industry."

Why does the hire matter now?

The Trade Desk is in the worst stretch of its history as a public company. In August, it reported second-quarter revenue of $715 million, up just 3% year-over-year and roughly $37.6 million short of analysts' forecasts. It guided third-quarter revenue to at least $650 million, about 12% below the same quarter last year, which would mark its first year-over-year revenue decline since going public.

In plain terms, a business that once compounded growth has stalled for two straight quarters.

Pickles framed his return around the team already in place. "I'm thrilled by all the progress our engineering and product teams have made in recent years," he said in a statement. "The foundation here is strong, and I'm excited to support the team and help guide them through a new era of rapid change and opportunity."

The CTO Council will cover "architectural direction, operational excellence, and key engineering investments—including agentic capabilities and advanced AI-powered advertising workflows," the company said in a blog post.

What went wrong after Pickles left?

Technology sits at the center of the company's troubles. The Trade Desk launched its Kokai platform in 2023, around the time Pickles stepped down. ADWEEK reported that advertisers frustrated with Kokai moved millions of dollars in ad spend to Amazon, and the company later sunsetted the product entirely.

Leadership has churned beyond the CTO seat. When Pickles left, he handed day-to-day technical leadership to Sairaj Uddin, then SVP of engineering, and Gruia Pitigoi-Aron, then SVP of product, both reporting to Green. The company has also cycled through a string of CFO departures. More recently it has pushed into AI agents with Koa, its conversational AI interface.

The company did not say whether Pickles is returning full time, rejoining the board or taking an officer title, or how the CTO Council will divide authority with current engineering and product leaders. The Trade Desk declined to comment on those details and pointed to its blog post.

Can a founder fix the roadmap?

Green and Pickles founded The Trade Desk in 2009, and Pickles came from AdECN, a Microsoft-acquired ad exchange where he led the team that built its real-time bidding exchange. The company went public in 2016, hitting a $1.1 billion market capitalization on its first day of trading on a bet that the open web would hold against the walled gardens.

The unanswered question is governance, not talent. Until The Trade Desk clarifies the council's authority on Nov. 9 or after, the market will read this as a founder patching a roadmap that lost its way under his successors.