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.

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.

John Stauffer is the Chief Strategy Officer in the Americas at Merkle. Bringing more than 15 years of agency experience to the role, John leads an integrated group of cross-channel strategists, transforming our clients’ customer experiences by turning deep channel expertise into strategic competitive advantages.