We’re asking some of our industry’s leading figures to nominate their digital hero and to explain what’s so special about them.
Mathieu Roche, Co-Founder & CEO, ID5 has a 15-year career in the digital industry, with leadership roles at companies including Weborama and Hi-Media. He co-founded centralised cookie synchronisation platform ID5 in 2017.
Who is your digital hero?
My digital hero is one of the main architects of this incredible information sharing infrastructure that we call the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Implementing the first HTTP communication over 30 years ago.
Everything that followed in digital, from ecommerce to social media, from universal access to information to data-driven marketing, all of that is built on the infrastructure created by his work.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
I think the initial creative work is what get most of the credit, but I am impressed by Berners-Lee’s continued efforts as part of the W3C to police and organise the Internet for the greater good.
There have been lots of negative applications of the Internet, from privacy breaches to election meddling to cyber bullying, and Berners-Lee is very involved in helping make this infrastructure work better in a more responsible way.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
We are at a turning point in digital advertising right now -our industry has developed without much considerations for users, and they (or by proxy browsers and regulators) are now pushing back against the uncontrolled use of their data.
We need to rebuild the foundation of digital advertising by putting users’ privacy at the heart of the system, so that we can protect the business model of most content & service providers as well as to ensure free access to information for the wider population.
I don’t believe it will take a single hero but rather a group of heroes to get there, but the challenge is worth the effort!
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I don’t know yet if it is an “heroic” effort but launching ID5 to contribute to the rebuilding of the digital advertising ecosystem has certainly been a daunting task!
It is however very exciting to see the positive feedback we receive from the industry as people understand that we are truly trying to change things for the better.
