Dave Bernath to Succeed Ron Gutman as CEO of AppLovin’s CTV Firm Wurl 

Wurl, the streaming company owned by mobile adtech giant AppLovin, is getting a new leader. 

CEO Ron Gutman is set to retire Thursday and will be succeeded by Dave Bernath, effective immediately, the company said. 

Bernath previously served as general manager for the Americas at Wurl, where he has focused on partnerships and revenue growth. He joined Wurl in early 2021. 

As CEO, Bernath’s priority will be driving more investment into connected television, or CTV, and to Wurl specifically. With his oversight, the company aims to deepen its technology investments and expand partnerships. 

“At the core, it’s about helping to accelerate the shift of ad dollars from legacy TV to streaming,” he told ADWEEK. “There are a lot of eyeballs on streaming TV, and the ad dollars have yet to follow in a way that’s commensurate with that viewership. That’s my central focus.”

Bernath praised the company’s culture, saying: “It’s a flat structure. We’re a small team. We’re nimble. Ideas come from anywhere. There’s no hierarchy, no bureaucracy. It’s very fast-moving.” As Wurl CEO, he’ll report to AppLovin chief executive Adam Foroughi.

“It has been a privilege leading Wurl through such a transformative chapter in streaming TV,” Gutman said in a statement shared with ADWEEK. He steps down after two and a half years as CEO and a total of eight years at Wurl.

“We’ve built a generative culture rooted in innovation and building great tech,” Gutman said. “Wurl is entering its next phase of growth, and I’m proud to pass the torch to someone who will continue to push our industry forward.”

He added that Bernath “has a deep understanding of both the creative and commercial sides of this business, and knows what it takes to scale and grow the business while putting customers first.”

Prior to joining Wurl, Bernath held a variety of leadership positions in the media and entertainment space, including at Comedy Central, BBC America, and E! News. 

AppLovin acquired Wurl in 2022, and since then it has become a keystone in AppLovin’s broader push beyond mobile advertising and into other fast-growing media areas like CTV and e-commerce. With a footprint across thousands of streaming channels, Wurl streamlines the process of getting content onto streaming services and smart TVs and helps advertisers connect with relevant audiences and content through a programmatic marketplace with access to 95 billion impressions monthly. The platform’s integration with AppLovin’s AI-powered performance marketing product AXON is billed as a way to ensure brands can serve highly relevant, targeted, and measurable ads. 

“We sit in a really special place in the ecosystem,” Bernath said. “We’re a connector between all the parties. We’re really trying to help the content companies maximize the opportunity in streaming, and of course, that means helping the advertisers, the brands, and the agencies grow their businesses in streaming. It’s great to have a view into all those areas and to be a part of trying to make things better.”

AppLovin’s stock is up more than 5% since the company reported strong Q2 financials—which included a 77% year-over-year lift in revenue—earlier this month. It’s been a standout in a field of publicly traded adtech companies that have otherwise seen a decrease in value amid mounting economic anxieties and an AI-driven shakeup in adland.