ORIX Capital Partners (OCP) today announced the appointment of George S. Rogers as Executive Chairman of Optimal, OCP’s digital performance marketing portfolio company. Mr. Rogers will also join Optimal’s Board.

Mr. Rogers is an industry veteran who joins Optimal with more than 40 years of agency experience in business development, executive leadership and global client relations. During his tenure, he has partnered with leading consumer brands across industries, including Walgreens Boots Alliance, Ford Motor Company, MillerCoors, Bank of America, and Pfizer. In his new role at Optimal, Mr. Rogers will be responsible for business development and overall leadership of the company, alongside Optimal’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Bassik and Co-Founder Kevin Weisberg.

“As Optimal continues to scale, we are excited to bolster its leadership with the addition of George, who brings unmatched expertise working with premier brands that will reinforce our top-notch client service and enable us to expand our reach across sectors,” said OCP President and Senior Managing Director, Chris Suan.

Most recently, Mr. Rogers served as the Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of full-service advertising branding agency, The Fantastical. Previously, he was the Director of Global Business Development and Chief Client Officer at WPP, assuming responsibility for global business development and managing relationships with its global client base. Before this corporate role, he created and led a joint venture comprised of over 5,000 global employees in Detroit-based offices of WPP's top marketing communications agencies to serve Ford Motor Company.

“I am thrilled to work alongside George to advance our long-term business goals and enhance our client relationships,” said Michael Bassik, CEO of Optimal. “George is a true industry leader with robust agency experience that will bring a fresh perspective to our leadership team. George’s strong track record and industry knowledge will be a huge asset in achieving purposeful growth.”

A fund managed by OCP acquired Optimad Media in May 2021, driven by OCP’s focus on the growing digital performance marketing sector, followed by the acquisition of DSPolitical and UNTU in October 2021. In August 2022, the firm announced that it was relaunching as Optimal, which included expanding its performance marketing capabilities with the acquisition of Effective Spend, an Austin-based industry leader in paid search, social media advertising, search engine optimization, and Amazon marketing services.

“Through working closely with some of the largest multi-national companies, I have seen first-hand the importance of sophisticated digital media strategies to effectively reach core audiences and maximize growth,” said Mr. Rogers. “With best-in-class, full range capabilities, and financial backing from an operationally focused partner like ORIX Capital Partners, Optimal is the ideal partner to help brands and organizations address these needs. I am honored to join Optimal and look forward to working alongside this industry-leading team.”

About ORIX Capital Partners

ORIX Capital Partners (OCP), the operationally-focused private equity team of ORIX Advisers, LLC and a wholly-owned subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA (ORIX USA), seeks to make direct equity investments on behalf of clients in established middle-market companies throughout North America, with a focus on industrial services and business services.

Optimal

Optimal (winwithoptimal.com) leverages the best combination of media, data, and technology to connect consumers to better products, audiences to better content, patients to better treatments, and voters to a better tomorrow. Our team of award-winning, mission-driven doers are leading the digital media charge. Brand, campaign, or cause, we maximize performance at every moment, taking a relentless approach to optimization, leveraging real-time insights, machine learning, and human strategy to deliver mission-critical results that help clients achieve measurable impact with zero compromises.

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