Alex Cone
Alex Cone is one of the AdTech industry's most consequential standards architects, having shaped the foundational infrastructure that governs programmatic supply chain transparency and accountability. During his tenure at IAB Tech Lab, he led the development and stewardship of specifications including sellers.json, the SupplyChain object, and extensions to ads.txt and app-ads.txt — tools now embedded across the global programmatic ecosystem to combat ad fraud, reduce arbitrage opacity, and give buyers meaningful visibility into the supply chain. His work helped establish IAB Tech Lab as the primary standards body for programmatic advertising infrastructure. Cone subsequently moved to Google, where he served as Group Product Manager for Chrome's Privacy Sandbox initiative, placing him at the center of the industry's most consequential shift: the transition away from third-party cookies toward privacy-preserving advertising technologies. In that role, he bridged technical standards development, industry policy, and ecosystem governance — translating complex regulatory and engineering challenges into actionable frameworks that must satisfy buy-side, sell-side, and platform stakeholders simultaneously. A frequent presence at major AdTech conferences and industry working groups, Cone is recognized as a rare operator who combines deep technical fluency with policy acumen. His career arc — from supply chain transparency to privacy-preserving advertising — reflects the industry's own evolution, and his contributions have made him a trusted voice across the programmatic ecosystem at a pivotal moment in its history.
Last updated Oct 18, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team
AI-drafted from public sources3 sources cited
- Years in industry
- 15 years
Bio
Alex Cone is one of the AdTech industry's most consequential standards architects, having shaped the foundational infrastructure that governs programmatic supply chain transparency and accountability. During his tenure at IAB Tech Lab, he led the development and stewardship of specifications including sellers.json, the SupplyChain object, and extensions to ads.txt and app-ads.txt — tools now embedded across the global programmatic ecosystem to combat ad fraud, reduce arbitrage opacity, and give buyers meaningful visibility into the supply chain. His work helped establish IAB Tech Lab as the primary standards body for programmatic advertising infrastructure. Cone subsequently moved to Google, where he served as Group Product Manager for Chrome's Privacy Sandbox initiative, placing him at the center of the industry's most consequential shift: the transition away from third-party cookies toward privacy-preserving advertising technologies. In that role, he bridged technical standards development, industry policy, and ecosystem governance — translating complex regulatory and engineering challenges into actionable frameworks that must satisfy buy-side, sell-side, and platform stakeholders simultaneously. A frequent presence at major AdTech conferences and industry working groups, Cone is recognized as a rare operator who combines deep technical fluency with policy acumen. His career arc — from supply chain transparency to privacy-preserving advertising — reflects the industry's own evolution, and his contributions have made him a trusted voice across the programmatic ecosystem at a pivotal moment in its history.
Career
Employee
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