Leadership

Our Leadership Team

Global

Patrick Hounsell

Global Lead, Activation & B2B

As EVP and Global Lead, Activation & B2B, Patrick currently leads Merkle’s digital media capabilities. As a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of digital and CRM agency experience, he currently oversees the operations of the company’s digital marketing capabilities. This includes search marketing, paid social, programmatic media, digital strategy, and analytics. Merkle’s Performance Media team serves some of the best known brands with a team of over 400 professionals.

Prior to this role, Patrick led Merkle’s industry market practice for retail and consumer goods, where he had oversight of Merkle’s client relationships, delivery of world-class services, and new business development strategies for Merkle’s largest industry practice. Patrick is also part of Merkle’s senior management team. He previously held the position of Chief Digital Officer, where he developed and oversaw the operations of the company’s digital practice.

Prior to Merkle, Patrick spent 12 years at Razorfish. As SVP and GM Media, Patrick was responsible for leading Razorfish’s Media practice, including paid media, search, social media, emerging media, and ad operations.

Prior to Razorfish, Hounsell worked at Prism Consulting International in Washington DC. He holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.

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Patrick Hounsell

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickhounsell/

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Pete Stein

Global President and President, Merkle Americas

In his 25-year journey in the marketing industry, Pete Stein has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to helping world-class brands deliver extraordinary customer experiences. As Global President of Merkle and dentsu’s CXM Practice, Pete leads the development and delivery of its full breadth of capabilities that drive customer experience transformation. Pete partners across regions and practice areas to shape Merkle’s brand strategy and go-to-market value proposition.

Pete is responsible for global annual revenue approaching $2 billion and a workforce spanning 16,000 employees across 30+ countries, encompassing the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. His purview comprises a broad array of CXM competencies, including technology and customer strategy, customer data management, analytics and insights, enterprise AI, commerce and content platforms, digital experience design, CRM and customer service, messaging, and loyalty and promotions.

Taking a global perspective, Pete’s rich experience is underpinned by an innate understanding of regional market dynamics. His charge within Merkle also includes serving as President of Merkle Americas, a region that contributes to over 70% of the company’s global revenue and employs more than 7,000 people. Prior to this role, he held the position of Global Lead of Experience & Commerce, establishing Merkle’s E&C practice and fronting a global team of CXM experts focused on experience and commerce technologies and services. His responsibilities included recruiting, developing, and inspiring the team to achieve sustainable performance and retain deep client relationships globally by enabling seamless shopping experiences. Under Pete’s leadership, Merkle has been recognized as a leader by Ad Age, Forrester, Gartner, The Drum, IDC, Everest Group, and others, as well as technology partners including Adobe, Google, Salesforce, Pega, and Amazon Web Services.

Pete is a visionary steward of Merkle’s growth strategy, including M&A, and has played a pivotal role in evaluating and orchestrating the acquisition of several high-profile customer transformation and technology businesses – and steering their successful integration into the dentsu family of companies.

Passionate about fostering a unique, people-centric corporate culture, Pete is a devoted advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. He actively supports Merkle and dentsu’s DEI initiatives and personifies their dedication to transparency and accountability in their inclusivity goals. This commitment led Merkle to receive the Digital Revolution Award in EMEA for Diversity and Inclusion Employer of the Year in 2022.

Prior to joining Merkle in 2020, Pete served as the CEO of Huge, a global experience agency with 1,200 employees in 13 offices across the globe. Huge delivered world-class customer experience work to clients like Google, McDonalds, and P&G. Prior to that role, Pete spent more than 18 years at Razorfish, ultimately rising to global CEO of the organization. While at Razorfish, Pete expanded a base of digital offerings by creating new global capabilities in ecommerce, social, mobile, and programmatic media, delivering strong growth for clients.

Residing in New Jersey, Pete is actively involved in the advertising and digital community, having served on the Ad Council board and the Snap Client Council.

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Pete Stein

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petestein1

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Margaret Wagner

President, Merkle EMEA

Margaret Wagner is the regional president of Merkle and CEO of dentsu’s Customer Experience Management (CXM) Service Line across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). She leads a business of $400 million in annual revenue and 3,500 employees across 34 offices in 14 markets. She is responsible for leading and developing a regional organisation that delivers customer experience transformation for clients as well as partnering with dentsu’s Creative and Media Service Lines on broader transformation programmes.

Previously the UK and EMEA chief growth officer, Margaret built a regional platform for sales, alliances, and marketing that is consistent and scalable. These platforms support the growth of existing and new clients on complex customer experience transformation journeys across Merkle’s media, analytics, CX and technology service lines. She led our hugely successful Alliances business with key partners including Adobe, Google, Pega and Salesforce.

Margaret is a member of the Merkle Global Executive Committee and of the Regional Executive Team of Giulio Malegori, CEO, dentsu EMEA. She joined Merkle in Europe as it launched in the UK in 2015 after serving in senior leadership roles for RAPP and Wunderman. Margaret is the executive sponsor for Merkle's Gender pillar for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion council.

Merkle is part of Dentsu, which provides best-in-class services and solutions in media, CXM, and creative that are designed to help clients to win, keep and grow their best customers and achieve meaningful progress for their businesses.

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Margaret Wagner

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-wagner-0714775/

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John Riccio

President, Merkle APAC

John serves as Chief Executive Officer, Merkle APAC, including Australia and New Zealand, which make up the biggest markets by revenue in the region. As the leader of dentsu’s fastest- growing business in the region, John, overseeing a team of more than 2,000 across Oceania, South East Asia, China, Taiwan, and India, is responsible for driving growth in all aspects of customer experience transformation, including digital experience, ecommerce, technology consulting and implementation, customer strategy, data, and analytics.

John has a track record in delivering experience-led and digital-enabled transformations that are responsive to market change, driving performance outcomes and supporting growth. With more than 30 years’ experience at some of the world’s largest consulting firms, John has led major digital business and strategic programs in Australia and the United Kingdom, in addition to leading the growth of digital and experience consulting practices in Asia Pacific and globally.

A renowned early adopter and thought leader in all aspects of digital disruption, John forged a career focused on placing the customer at the heart of business decisions, delivering exceptional customer experience outcomes. He is recognized as a specialist in helping clients make sense of the rapidly changing digital landscape and developing strategies and visions that allow them to respond to that change.

John joined Merkle in February 2022. Previously, he was a senior Consulting partner at PwC, EY, and IBM. At PwC, he served as Chief Digital Officer. He established and led the PwC Digital Services and Experience Consulting practices and later served as the ASEANZ Digital Practice leader, before joining the global Experience Consulting leadership team.

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John Riccio

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricciojohn/

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Holden Bale

Global Head of Experience & Commerce

Holden Bale leads the global Experience & Commerce practice at Merkle, a team of over 5,000 professionals across experience design and product innovation, digital platforms and engineering, UX and commerce strategy, loyalty, digital messaging, and analytics who've come together from respected brands including Isobar, LiveArea, HelloWorld, Extentia, Shift7, ePrize, and DEG to form one community of practice.

He has partnered with businesses including McDonald’s, Target, Kate Spade, Mars, Ulta Beauty, Spotify, Nordstrom, Delta Airlines, Domino’s Pizza, P&G, Rakuten, and Bain Capital on some of their most ambitious initiatives – ranging from growth strategy and digital business transformation to innovation in customer experience and technology modernization.

Prior to Huge, Holden lead the global commerce division of the IPG experience design firm Huge; was the principal strategist for ThoughtWorks, a global engineering and agile transformation firm, and led their consumer practices in the Americas; directed the omnichannel retail group at Accenture Strategy; and was a management consultant at Kurt Salmon, a boutique consultancy focused on retail, CPG, and healthcare, specializing in digital and change management services.

He regularly contributes to publications including Morning Brew, Business of Fashion, Adweek, WWD, Glossy, and Modern Retail, and has presented over the last year at events including Shoptalk US and Shoptalk Europe, Digital Congress in Sweden, Advertising Week in New York, and Business of Fashion Live. He sits on the Advisory Board of the global Buy Nothing movement, founded in 2013 with the mission to build community by connecting people through hyperlocal gifting and the circular economy.

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Holden Bale

https://www.linkedin.com/in/holdenbale/

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Owen McCorry

Global Chief Growth & Alliances Officer

Owen leads new business and growth at Merkle and is a results-oriented marketing, CRM, digital, and business development leader with over 25 years of experience.

Since joining Merkle in 2008, Owen has served in many leadership position across multiple industries, including managing Merkle Health, the Enterprise Sales Team and development/execution of Merkle’s Strategic Accounts strategy. Owen is building and inspiring teams that deliver valuable data-driven marketing strategies and solutions, with a focus on hyper-personalized experiences. His team members have a deep understanding of emerging technologies and communication channels. They are building solutions that leverage the intersection of marketing strategy, big data, analytics, and marketing technology to enable brands to deliver world-class customer engagements that result in long-lasting, profitable relationships.

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Owen McCorry

https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenmccorry/

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Kirt Morris

Global Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer

Kirt Morris has built a strong reputation for driving tangible business results by leading cultural, operational, and organizational transformations.

He has been recognized for his passion for building globally diverse teams and fostering a culture of inclusion and equity. His focus is on maximizing the adoption of strategies, models, and programs to attract, develop, and retain critical talent committed to delivering value inside and outside an organization.

Kirt’s diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) career stands on four pillars of success:

Impactful Strategies – He excels in defining the DEI vision and roadmap to build a diverse population with a healthy and vibrant culture to enable every employee to do great work, develop a phenomenal career, and feel valued, respected, heard, and that they belong.
Successful Execution – Kirt is an expert in collaborating with business stakeholders, human resources teams, and regional DEI advisory councils to develop and adopt a comprehensive DEI strategy that encompasses workforce, culture, corporate social responsibility, marketing, and clients.
Influential Advocacy – Kirt has been a tireless advocate for equity and inclusion at Merkle and in the industry at large.
Passionate Global Teams – He is an expert in developing individuals and teams focused on achieving great results through a shared culture of trust and respect.

In 2020, Kirt was chosen as Merkle’s first Chief Equity Officer to lead all efforts to further refine and achieve DEI strategies and initiatives within dentsu for the Customer Experience Management (CXM) Line of Business, impacting a workforce of 9,600+ employees throughout 9 agencies in EMEA, the Americas, and APAC. He has full responsibility for creating and communicating the future state vision and detailed plans, outlining long- and short-term goals with expected outcomes initially in the Americas with expansion globally.

Previously, during his roles as Senior Director and Director of the Data Management Business Unit within the Retail Consumer Packaged Goods Practice, he was instrumental in building the DEI team while maintaining 100% client responsibilities.

For the past two years, Kirt has led the Americas DEI Ethnicity Pillar. He also established and grew the dentsu Multicultural Business Resource Group in the US from 25 to 230+ DEI practitioners within one year. He hosted Town Halls that provided employees with an outlet to discuss their challenges and goals for equity in the workplace. He was instrumental in developing the 18-month strategic roadmap. He built relationships with historically black colleges and universities that increased the pipeline for entry-level talent. Kirt advocated and co-led all efforts to establish Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as Merkle’s Day of Service in the Americas.

He holds a graduate degree in Management of computer information systems from University of Phoenix, and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Maryland.

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Kirt Morris

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirtmorris/

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Matt Naeger

Global Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Marketing Officer

As Merkle’s Global Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Marketing Officer, Americas, Matt brings nearly 20 years of helping marketers and brands embrace the advancements that make direct customer relationships possible. He leads the agency’s omni-channel strategy experts across industries — designing and launching integrated marketing programs by converging data with media and creating experiences that truly reach individuals.

From the onset of digital marketing, Matt was an innovator and founder at IMPAQT, a pioneer SEM agency, which after being acquired helped to establish Merkle’s focus on digital — he has played a key role in its position as a frontrunner in the changing advertising agency model. As a recognized thought leader in the digital space, Matt brings his core data principles, his energy for what’s next, and his deep expertise in improving marketing for some of the best brands in the world. He has also worked with partners like Google, Microsoft and Facebook as their platforms have developed providing his expertise to their product teams as they have evolved digital marketing.

Matt has served as a strategy partner to Whirlpool, General Mills, Mercedes Benz, and Comcast; recent clients include Chase, HBO, Office Depot, and Time Warner Inc.

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Matt Naeger

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattnaeger/

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Elizabeth Rafferty

Global Chief People Officer

As Global Chief People Officer, Liz is responsible for Merkle HR globally and across the Americas. With the integration of Merkle into dentsu, she focuses on company culture and bringing the employee promise to life for all Merkle team members around the world.

Liz has been with dentsu since June 2019, working in several Americas HR roles, including the HR Lead for the CXM Service Line in the Americas. Her experience in HR spans more than twenty years with global professional service consulting organizations. Her background includes global mergers and acquisitions, HR transformation, establishing a global client-facing HR organization, outsourcing/business process outsourcing (BPO), talent strategy, and HR technology.

Prior to working with dentsu and Merkle, Liz served as the Executive Director for a US-based nonprofit that builds skills and professional opportunities for historically underrepresented youth in corporate spaces.

Liz received her bachelor of science degree from Illinois State University and holds GPHR (Global Professional of HR) and Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) SCP (Sr. Certified HR Professional) certifications.

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Elizabeth Rafferty

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-rafferty-878b73/

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Matthew Seeley

Global Lead, Data & Identity

Matt is responsible for the strategic vision, service delivery, and overall performance of Merkle’s Data and Identity Practice.

Prior to Merkle, Matt served as COO at Cheetah Digital and before that, Experian by way of CheetahMail, as part of the founding team in 2000. A pioneer in the email space, Matt helped transform CheetahMail from a $2 million startup into one of the premier global email services organizations. After being acquired by Experian, Matt expanded his role to leading the company’s Marketing Services division in North America, running all email and cross-channel platforms across the globe.

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Matthew Seeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-seeley-7275b6/

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Sarah Strassheim

Global Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Sarah Strassheim is the Global CFO for Merkle. She provides senior finance leadership to the global executive team and is responsible for commercial finance initiatives in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC and driving enterprise level systems and acquisition integration.

Prior to joining Merkle, Sarah led the finance organization at the US trading office of a commodity company based in Thailand. She started her career at Accenture where she spent over a decade in a variety of global financial and reporting systems roles.

Sarah joined Merkle in July 2014 supporting the Digital Agency Group. Her scope of responsibility has since expanded to include all the business units in North America – including numerous acquisitions completed during that period. Sarah consistently drives financial performance by balancing an understanding of the business with her strong finance background.

Sarah earned her Bachelor of Science at the University of Mary Washington.

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Sarah Strassheim

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Shawn Streett

CIO, Information Management Systems & Dentsu Global Services

Shawn brings 25 years of experience in enterprise technology and information security to his role at Merkle, where he leads technology teams that architect and manage Cloud based solutions, data platforms, and enterprise security for CXM and Dentsu Global Services.

Prior to joining Merkle, Shawn led the Managed Hosting Operations and Engineering teams at Digex/Verizon Business, where he managed the internet presence of Fortune 500 customers.

Shawn earned his Master of Science in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and is a member of the board of directors for the Mid-Atlantic CIO forum.

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Shawn Streett

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnstreett/

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Shirli Zelcer

Global Lead, Analytics & Technology

Shirli is the Global Head of Analytics and Technology at Merkle. With over 20 years of experience in analytics and insights, business advisory and organizational design, artificial intelligence and data science, and cloud and marketing technologies, Shirli is at the forefront of innovation ranging from ethical AI and advancements in cloud engineering to future-proofing data literate organizations around zero-party data.

At Merkle, Shirli is responsible for leading the Analytics & Marketing Technology practice area, a global division of more than 5,600 practitioners across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, covering services that include consumer and experience insights; product and market intelligence; data science and artificial intelligence; and marketing technology, big data infrastructure, and cloud engineering.

Her team’s work is wide-ranging, covering everything from enterprise segmentation and acquisition modeling to CDP and data infrastructure implementation to advanced media mix modeling, personalization strategies, and bespoke AI solutions in areas including pricing, supply chain, and competitive intelligence.

Shirli has worked across numerous industries, but has especially deep experience in travel, media and entertainment, retail, high tech, and financial services, having partnered with brands including Disney, Dell, Universal Parks and Resorts, Royal Caribbean, Marriott, and Nike.

Prior to joining Merkle, Shirli worked for Capital One in the Marketing and Analysis department, responsible for developing credit risk models, NPV models, and DOE testing. Shirli has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Statistics from Cornell University.

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Shirli Zelcer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirlizelcer/

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Susan Zoch

Global Chief Counsel

Susan is Merkle’s General Counsel. With her leadership, Merkle’s legal department advises and enables the business to accelerate sustainable growth and achieve competitive advantage, while working together, championing the company’s values, and leading by example. Susan leverages more than 25 years of legal experience across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including commercial transactions, privacy and data protection, technology, litigation, compliance, and human resources.

Prior to joining Merkle, Susan served in a similar role at Vertis Communications and was in private practice at Baker Botts in Washington DC. She clerked for the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She holds a JD from The University of Texas School of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Texas Law Review, and a BA from Rice University.

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Susan Zoch

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Americas

Walter Flaat

Canada Market Lead

Walter Flaat leads Merkle / CXM in Canada. His team brings Merkle’s leading global capabilities to the local market while deeply integrating them with the local social and cultural diversity that defines Canada. He is also Chief Data Officer for dentsu Canada, providing executive support and guidance for the development of dentsu’s data products & services across all service lines.

Previously, Walter served as Chief Data Officer for dentsu Netherlands, where he spearheaded the development of integrated data & analytics unit DNA, now known as DDL (dentsu Data Labs). This model transformed the delivery of data services in an agency context from primarily value-added reporting - to industry leading data solutions. The DDL model has since expanded globally.

Before transferring to Canada, Walter also implemented best-in-class GDPR compliance in the local market, earning him recognition as a leader in the European privacy domain.

Prior to that, he served as Head of Data & Media Partnerships for Amnet and was a leading architect for DMP & CRM implementations across the EMEA region.

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Walter Flaat

https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterflaat/

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Amanda Moore

Chief Growth Officer, Merkle Americas

As CGO, Amanda leads the growth team and is responsible for the development and execution of the growth strategy and value creation for Merkle’s clients. She is a digital marketing veteran who has worked at leading business and marketing consultancies for twenty-five years. Since 2017, she has served as a leader at Merkle, leading brands such as Facebook, Twentieth Century Fox, and CVS in their digital and data transformation initiatives.

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Amanda Moore

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandamcelroy/

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Tim Perlstein

Chief Marketing Officer, Merkle Americas

Tim joined Merkle in March 2021 as SVP, Experience & Commerce Solutions, to help establish Merkle’s global Experience & Commerce practice area –a broad set of capabilities and solutions that are critical to Merkle’s vision for complete, connected customer experience transformation. As CMO, Americas, Tim remains focused on elevating and extending Merkle’s leadership in data-driven, technology-enabled customer experience services for tomorrow’s most engaging, most relevant, most successful brands.

Prior to Merkle, Tim served as CEO of United in Gaming, Inc., a social platform for amateur esports competition, and previously served as Interim CMO of Skills Matter, the leading global community and continuous learning platform for software engineers. He also created Tanjent Partners in 2015 as a boutique consulting firm focused on growth strategy, marketing, and commerce. Through Tanjent, Tim has worked with a diverse array of firms in media, technology, CPG/ecommerce, and professional services (including multiple agencies at various stages of growth).

Previously, Tim served as SVP Strategy & Insights and then SVP Managing Director of Fullscreen's brand group. In these roles Tim managed a range of functions including strategy, measurement and insights, operations, strategic planning, and B2B marketing, supporting sustained double-digit growth over a three-year period and a successful exit to AT&T in 2018.

Prior to Fullscreen, Tim served as Chief Strategy Officer for Razorfish, a global digital agency, where he led the agency's strategic planning, corporate development, and service innovation functions. During his tenure, he transformed the agency's strategy discipline into a market-leading digital consulting practice, establishing Razorfish as "one of the strongest strategy-led marketing service providers in the industry," according to Gartner Research. 

Tim joined Razorfish from Yahoo!, where he served as Director of Consumer & Customer Innovation. He also led online marketing for the Yahoo! Media Group and held multiple marketing and product management roles at Knight Ridder Digital, the online news division of the US’s second-largest newspaper publisher. Prior to Knight Ridder, Tim served as head writer for Pallotta TeamWorks, supporting massive-scale fundraising efforts which netted over $69 million for AIDS and breast cancer charities in a single year.

Tim earned his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Harvard University, and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, along with certificates in Global and Public Management, with a focus on international development. He lives in Austin, TX (physically), airplane aisle seats (preferably), and the itty-bitty rectangular window of your favorite video conferencing tool.

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Tim Perlstein

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timperlstein/

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Billy Thomas

Chief Operating Officer, Merkle Americas

A 23-year industry veteran, Billy has been with Merkle for more than 12 years, playing several roles within the Marketing Technology and Data Management teams and working across industry sectors. He built his career growing client accounts, expanding margins, building offshore teams, and partnering with client partners to improve performance on challenging accounts. In his most recent role as Delivery Group Leader for Marketing Technology, he led teams that consistently achieved demanding client delivery objectives.

Prior to Merkle, Billy held various roles over 11 years with Acxiom, primarily in a client delivery capacity, focusing on driving efficiency for the company and its clients across the B2B, Government, and Financial Services sectors.

As COO, Merkle Americas, Billy dual reports to Pete Stein, President, Merkle Americas and Sarah Strassheim, Global Chief Operating Officer, Merkle. His primary focus areas are establishing partnerships with practice areas to ensure critical KPIs are met; continuing to work on brand integrations and defining a standard approach; and supporting Merkle’s Growth, HR, and Finance teams with efficiencies, consistent communication, and more seamless collaboration. His leadership and experience will be critical as Merkle continues to elevate operational excellence and advance toward a goal of operating as One dentsu.

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Billy Thomas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billythomas1/

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EMEA

Martin Bochineck

CEO, Northern Europe and Experience & Commerce Lead, EMEA

Martin is the founder of Magnetix (now Merkle) and serves as CEO for Merkle Northern Europe and EMEA lead for experience and commerce. Martin serves as strategic advisor to some of the top international clients in Merkle within digital strategy, commerce, transformation and CRM.

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Martin Bochineck

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-bochineck/

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Christiane Georg

Chief Operating Officer, EMEA

Christiane Georg is the Chief Operating Officer of Merkle across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In her role, Christiane implements innovative, technology-based business and operating models, driving automation and growth in the business across the region.

Previously Christiane led the EMEA digital strategy & solutions practice for Information Services Group across the region. With over 25 years of international business experience, and a proven record of accomplishment in business innovation & strategy, large-scale digital transformation, and operational excellence, Christiane has also held the role of CEO at a German start-up company. A champion for diversity and collaboration, Christiane is passionate about utilising technology to improve the everyday living.

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Christiane Georg

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiane-georg/

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Patrik Gamryd

CEO, Merkle DACH & CEO, dentsu Switzerland

Patrik Gamryd thrives on digital change.

Originally from Sweden, Patrik has over 20 years of experience and is celebrating 14 years being part of dentsu. A true change-maker, Patrik combines commercial, technology, and creative thinking to transform clients' businesses, brands, and peoples' lives with the use of media and digital. He holds degrees in Marketing & Communications, as well as Systems Engineering in Internet Technology. His motivation comes from the tempo of the digital space itself, something he has experienced as an individual, witnessed as a manager, and capitalized upon as a change leader.

In 2007, Patrik joined dentsu through iProspect, developing the agency into the leading performance marketing agency in Sweden, which resulted in a 2019 career pivot to CEO of Dentsu Sweden. Previously, he was the CEO for the Swedish ecommerce retailer Inkclub and CEO for Dentsu Hungary.

Patrik led the merger of dentsu’s digital business in the DACH region (Isobar) with Namics AG, taking on the Merkle brand name in 2021. As CEO of Merkle DACH, Patrik leads a growing team that reached 1,800 employees in 2021, spread across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as near & offshore centers in Portugal, Serbia, Czech Republic, Italy, and the Philippines. Under his leadership, the Merkle DACH team delivered double-digit growth since its creation, and is positioning itself as a leader in customer experience management in the DACH region.

Championing professional development for digital industry shapers has been a privilege for Patrik. By surrounding himself with great people and learning constantly, he has helped clients and individuals achieve success and benefit from the opportunities digital advancement has created.

“As with all things digital, the real and most important changes are always ahead of us.”

A passionate skier, climber and father of two daughters, Patrik enjoys adventure in remote areas of the Alps and Alaska to gain further perspective and be inspired.

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Patrik Gamryd

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrik-gamryd-76768a/

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Rob Gold

EMEA CEO, Merkle B2B

Rob is the UK CEO of Merkle B2B. Merkle B2B is purpose built to deliver new ways of operating in an ever-changing B2B world, across 6 practice areas (brand and creative, media, market research, data and tech, automation, and commerce).

Under Rob’s leadership the agency has begun many new relationships, whilst deepening existing client partnerships by always adopting a customer centric model.

A communications planner at heart, Rob enjoys nothing more than working alongside his clients and colleagues to solve business challenges. A firm optimist and future gazer, Rob and his team always have one eye on new opportunities to provide next generation marketing services to Merkle B2B clients.

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Rob Gold

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-g/

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Ben Gott

Practice Lead, Marketing Solutions EMEA

Ben leads Merkle's data and marketing technology division across EMEA. He leads a team that is responsible for the implementation, integration and management of clients’ data and technology, ensuring that they are getting the most out of their investments. His team specialise in strategic consultancy, CRM, technical consulting, analytics, and real-time decision management solutions.

During his 15 year career at Merkle, Ben has worked to bring the Agency Services and Marketing Solutions businesses closer together and to empower clients' customer experience transformations through tech. His experience supports our wider business integration as martech platforms continue to grow. Ben originally formed part of the leadership team for Merkle’s first EMEA acquisition, the multi-award-winning Periscopix.

His career to date has seen him occupy lead roles across the disciplines of analytics, performance media and data and martech. Most recently, he led the integration of the company's digital and customer analytics teams, to create a combined analytics practice which is unique to Merkle. He has also worked closely with Merkle's key enterprise tech partners to help clients rise to the challenge of bringing the different marketing disciplines together to work harmoniously.

Ben is a keen supporter of the efforts of Merkle’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, with particular involvement in promoting the Gender and Ethnicity pillars.

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Ben Gott

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brgott/

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Nick McCarthy

SVP, EMEA Alliances Director

Nick McCarthy is EMEA Alliances Director, responsible for leading the Global Technology Alliances in EMEA.

Nick is responsible for the development of an integrated business strategy with key partners, including Adobe, Salesforce and Google, to help clients realise the value from their technology investments.

Nick joined the dentsu-owned agency Merkle in 2017 as SVP EMEA Data Solutions, with responsibility for the creation and commercialisation of Merkle’s data products and partnerships in the EMEA region. He has diverse global and cross-industry sector expertise in senior roles across marketing services, media and digital businesses as well as data, marketing and strategy leadership roles within client organisations.

He sits on the Merkle diversity, equity and inclusion council as he is passionate about ensuring our business is representative of society and supporting our equality agenda.

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Nick McCarthy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasmccarthy/

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Azlan Raj

Chief Marketing Officer, EMEA

Azlan Raj is the EMEA chief marketing officer for Merkle and dentsu’s customer experience management service line. His role spans all dentsu capabilities across commerce, data and technology platforms, analytics, media, customer experience, content, and B2B. He is responsible for continually evolving Merkle and dentsu’s leading digital and data capabilities across the region to drive customer experience transformation for clients. Previously the EMEA leader for Merkle’s Customer Experience offering, he built the company’s regional capability to over 1,200 people in just three years.

With over 20 years of experience in the digital industry, prior to joining Merkle Azlan worked for leading brands, agencies, and consultancies, including Barclaycard, SapientRazorfish, and Accenture. Through his career, Azlan has been part of award-winning teams and led a diverse set of capabilities from marketing strategy through to analytics, website design and development, and marketing activation.

Azlan is passionate about Merkle’s efforts in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, and is actively involved in supporting the ethnicity and mental health pillars. He is especially committed to ensuring that we are embedding inclusivity and social responsibility in our own communications.

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Azlan Raj

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phailanx/

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Anne Stagg

CEO, United Kingdom

Anne Stagg is the UK CEO of Merkle and of dentsu international’s Customer Experience Management (CXM) service line. Anne leads a business of 940 people offering expertise across data and analytics, CRM, commerce, media, digital experience services and B2B.

Previously head of client services, Anne has been an instrumental part of Merkle’s growth throughout her time with the business. She led the creation of a fully integrated client services team across the company’s media, analytics, customer experience and technology service lines, driving growth across key clients to support them on their complex transformational journeys.

Anne’s depth of understanding of the current marketplace, alongside her track-record of driving business growth for global clients, is outstanding. She has a wealth of experience across consulting, planning, digital and data, having previously held the roles of managing director at Indicia, director of data services at more2 and head of client management at Experian.

Anne started her career client-side at Thomas Cook and quickly moved agency-side, leading client services roles in data-driven marketing. Anne has extensive experience in business start-up and growth, and in turnaround and transformation roles. She has worked with some of the biggest client names including Unilever, Heineken, Nissan, ITV, and at more2 numerous multi-channel retail clients including White Stuff, Jessops, House of Fraser, The White Company, and many more.

Anne is passionate about the mental health of the organisation and invests time in ensuring support is available for all employees. She serves as exec sponsor for the Parent and Carer pillar on the Merkle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion council as this is also a topic close to her heart.

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Anne Stagg

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annestagg1/

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Manuel Blanco Viejo

CEO, Merkle Spain & Analytics Lead, Merkle EMEA

Manuel became CEO of Merkle’s Spain market after the 2017 acquisition of DIVISIDERO, a consulting firm specializing in technology and data. In 2007, he started his career in the company and five years later was appointed country manager to lead its growth and strategic positioning in the market.

Since the beginning of his career, Manuel has always been linked to the transformation of business through digital capabilities. With two master’s degrees in computer engineering and an MBA, Manuel has a wealth of experience across consulting, technology, and data. He is also an associate professor within the Digital Transformation Executive Program at IE Executive Education.

His extensive knowledge in this field has allowed him to collaborate with Fortune 500 companies, large publishers, and Ibex35 companies, acquiring deep expertise in different sectors and industries.

In addition to his leadership of Merkle’s Spain market, Manuel leads the company’s analytics division across EMEA. His team is responsible for the sophistication of the analytics practice, which is unique to Merkle, ensuring that clients get the most value out of their data and insights.

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Manuel Blanco Viejo

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelblancoviejo/

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Jane Wright

HR Director, EMEA

In her role as HR Director for dentsu’s CXM Service Line, Jane partners with the Merkle EMEA executive leadership team to achieve their strategic business goals. Her work aligns with dentsu’s people strategy and priorities, which underpin Merkle’s aspiration to create a culture that supports growth and career development for our people and enables a positive employee experience.

Merkle’s growth strategy has resulted in a rapidly expanding workforce across the region: organic growth and acquisitions has seen the company increase across EMEA from just 20 people in the UK in 2015 to over 5,500 employees across more than 20 countries. Jane is responsible for ensuring consistent people-related practices that help create a stimulating and rewarding working environment in support of Merkle’s goal to build a great company where the best people in the industry will want to work.

Jane has more than 20 years’ experience in human resources following a career in client management. She started her career at Acxiom and held a number of senior roles there before joining the Merkle team as part of the Comet Global Consulting acquisition in 2016.

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Jane Wright

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janepwright/

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APAC

Kiaran Geen

President, APAC, Merkle B2B

Kiaran leads Merkle B2B across the Asia Pacific region. Joining the group via Merkle | DWA in 2014, he is a dedicated B2B marketing and media practitioner with 18 plus years’ experience and is intent on developing strategic plans that deliver ROI for his clients.

Prior to Merkle, Kiaran spent time in the leadership function of OMD, working with some of Australia’s largest brands. It was here that his fascination with new media technologies sparked the desire to deliver value through bespoke, data-driven campaigns, which continues to this day.

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Kiaran Geen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgeen/

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Patrick Deloy

APAC Lead, Experience & Commerce

Patrick Deloy is a Managing Director at Merkle | Dentsu Commerce, an award-winning e-commerce solutions provider which supports medium to large B2C and B2B companies with the planning, development, localization and long term support of multi-country e-commerce website deployments in the APAC region.

Patrick, a serial entrepreneur by nature, co-founded Bluecom Group in 2012 and has helped to established Bluecom into the leading Adobe, Salesforce and omnichannel commerce solution provider in APAC. Passionate about new technologies and the APAC market, Patrick has been involved in IT & e-commerce for over 10 years with stations in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai and frequent travels to Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and to global e-commerce & digital events.

With an in-depth knowledge of the regional digital market as well as regional economics and policies, Patrick is a frequent speaker at industry events and is also a contributor to e-commerce related publications. Patrick is also a member of YPO Young President's Organization and an avid global traveler.

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Patrick Deloy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricknxg/

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Sophie Lee

Chief Financial Officer, APAC

Since joining dentsu in 2016, Sophie has held a variety of senior finance roles (Commercial Finance, Compliance, Controllership, and CFO for Philippines). She assisted Merkle in establishing its first APAC footprint in 2018 by assisting with pitches, M&A, project management, and finance.

Sophie has 20 years of international experience in a variety of industries (audit, banking, manufacturing, commodities, and advertising). She is a CPA with an MBA from the National University of Singapore and a double master's degree in finance and management from the University of Paris. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and French.

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Sophie Lee

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-lee-65408331/

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Hawk Liu

CEO, China Region

Hawk has more than 22 years of experience at Accenture, Deloitte Consulting, Dell, Capgemini, and IBM in management and as a leader and partner in strategy, management, human capital, digital, operation, and IT consulting.

He is a strategic leader with global exposure and detailed understanding of the China market. He specializes in business operation and process optimization, strategy, digital transformation, digital interactive and cloud computing, big data and block chain applications, enterprise information strategic planning and architecture, ERP systems implementation, etc.

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Hawk Liu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hawk-liu-42272019/

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Anubhav Sonthalia

CEO, India

Anubhav Sonthalia currently leads Dentsu India’s unified CXM business as the CEO. He co-founded Sokrati in 2009 and grew it to one of India’s leading digital media agencies, managing over 10% of the country’s performance media spends. Sokrati became a part of Merkle Inc. (Dentsu International) in 2017 and Anubhav is still actively heading Merkle Sokrati as the CEO. Before Sokrati, he was helping drive efficiency & scale at Amazon (Seattle) as the Product Manager for Amazon's Comparison-Shopping Program. He completed his MS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Anubhav is an industry veteran with close to 2 decades of experience building teams and products to solve business problems for the Fortune 1,000 and fast-growing startups alike. From providing personalized customer experiences, driving customer acquisition & branding through digital media to technical product management - his underlying empathy for customers & deep understanding of their businesses permeates through every role he has led.

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Anubhav Sonthalia

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anubhavsonthalia/

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Imelda Mapleston

Chief Marketing Officer, APAC

Imelda leads Marketing and Communications for Merkle Asia Pacific and is responsible for driving the brand equity of Merkle in this region. She has held both client and agency leadership roles and has worked with some of the world’s leading brands; Accenture, Tata, Vodafone, Ogilvy, Lenovo, Kraft – helping them leverage the creativity of marketing to drive business growth. She has spent the last 15 years working with b2b technology companies on their brand & reputation, propositions, sales enablement and marketing - winning several industry awards for b2b marketing effectiveness.

With a quest for joy at work and at home, Imelda believes in leading with passion and compassion. She is focused on bringing together global and local teams to enable each market to execute effective and integrated marketing campaigns aimed at the c-suite in the space of customer experience transformation. Imelda sits on the Merkle Global Senior Leadership team and the Asia Pacific Executive Leadership team.

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Imelda Mapleston

https://www.linkedin.com/in/imeldamapleston/

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Christopher Webb

Chief Operating Officer, APAC

Chris has over 17 years’ experience helping businesses around the world to transform and stay competitive by optimizing business models and delivering large- scale technology transformations.

He has done this by pairing his multi-industry business knowledge with expertise in business agility, ways of working (HCD, lean, agile), and correlating technology practices (DevOps). He helps organizations integrate strategy, operating model, and business architecture, to improve business execution. He has worked in 3 continents extensively across the High-Tech, Mining, Energy, Airlines, Retail, and Telco industries.

He previously led the Agile Advisory practice at PwC and Deloitte, and most recently was the Head of Strategic Performance at ANZ bank.

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Christopher Webb

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherwilliamwebb/

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