OpenAI has appointed advertising industry veteran Mark Bambury as Head of OpenAI EMEA, Ads, as the ChatGPT maker builds out its advertising operation across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Bambury announced the appointment on LinkedIn, saying he would work with companies and agencies across EMEA and was building OpenAI’s ads team in the region.
The appointment comes as OpenAI rapidly expands ChatGPT Ads beyond its original US market. The company said on August 31 that ChatGPT Ads had reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in less than 200 days, with tens of thousands of advertisers using the platform. OpenAI also said ads were then available in more than 40 countries and that self-service advertising was being launched across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
OpenAI had announced earlier in August that ChatGPT Ads would expand to 31 European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria. The company subsequently said self-service access through Ads Manager was available across all 31 markets from August 31.
An advertising veteran
Bambury comes to OpenAI with more than 15 years of experience in digital advertising.
His SXSW 2025 profile described him as Senior Director of Brand Partnerships for Tech, Telco, Gaming and Media at Roblox, where he worked with brands to expand their presence on the gaming platform through immersive experiences, virtual items, integrations and video.
The profile also says Bambury previously led teams and functions at Google EMEA and Twitter/X.
At Roblox, Bambury was involved in developing advertising partnerships aimed at reaching younger audiences. In May, advertising company Venatus announced that it had become Roblox’s official reseller for Rewarded Video in the UK, France and Germany.
Bambury said in the announcement that the partnership would allow advertisers to engage Gen Z audiences through formats designed around “immersive, participatory environments”.
His LinkedIn profile also lists a Google AdWords certification. Recommendations on the profile refer to his work with Twitter’s revenue and marketing solutions operation, including helping advertisers deploy paid social campaigns and test new advertising products.
OpenAI builds EMEA ads team
Bambury’s appointment comes as OpenAI is putting a significant commercial structure around its advertising business in EMEA.
The company’s current EMEA Vendor Lead, Ad Sales role in Dublin says OpenAI is building an outsourced operating model to support its ads business in EMEA and globally.
The position sits within the company’s SMB Ads team and involves advertiser acquisition, activation, revenue growth and retention. It also calls for the development of sales-performance systems, capacity planning and partnerships with external business-process outsourcing providers.
OpenAI is also recruiting a Marketing Scientist – EMEA in London. According to the job description, the role will work with advertisers, agencies and sales teams on advertising measurement, attribution, incrementality testing, marketing-mix modelling and advertiser reporting.
Its current Ads Solutions vacancies also include Customer Success Manager positions in Paris and Munich, Regional Client Partner roles in Paris, Dublin and Munich, an EMEA Vendor Lead in Dublin and a Regional Client Partner role in Mumbai.
The Mumbai role is particularly significant for the region because OpenAI has identified India, along with Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, as part of the latest expansion of its self-service advertising platform.
From US test to global platform
OpenAI began testing advertising in ChatGPT in the US earlier this year before expanding internationally. The company’s August announcement said the European rollout came six months after it began testing ads in the US.
OpenAI now describes advertising as one pillar of its diversified business model, alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise offerings and usage-based APIs. It said its advertising platform was being used by tens of thousands of advertisers and had expanded its ecosystem to more than 50 technology and measurement partners.
The company says ads are clearly labelled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and that advertising does not influence the answers generated by the system. It also says advertisers do not receive access to users’ private conversations.
The commercial model is evolving rapidly. OpenAI said CPC and outcome-optimised bidding account for the majority of campaigns, while tools such as Pixel, Conversions API, product feeds, geographic and platform targeting and custom audiences have been added to the advertising platform.
For Bambury, the move brings his experience with some of the world’s largest digital advertising platforms to a company that is attempting to create a new advertising environment around AI-powered discovery and decision-making.
OpenAI says people increasingly use ChatGPT to explore products, compare alternatives and make decisions — a behaviour the company sees as creating a new opportunity for advertisers to reach consumers at the point where those decisions are being made.
