Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announced that it has hired Andy Fisher as chief analytics officer leading Merkle’s digital analytics and marketing measurement optimization capabilities.

Fisher joins Merkle from Starcom MediaVest Group, where he was the EVP, global data & analytics director from 2010-2012. At Starcom MediaVest Group, he built and managed a global team of 150 analytics professionals across 17 countries, servicing many of the world’s largest advertisers. Prior to this role, Fisher was the vice president and national lead, analytics at Razorfish. In this role, he led the digital analytics practice and defined the global analytic vision and strategy.

As Merkle’s chief analytics officer, Fisher will be focused on scaling Merkle’s digital and marketing measurement optimization practices, in addition to continuing Merkle’s build-out of global analytic capabilities for its US multi-national clients. He will drive innovation and business development for the industry’s first enterprise solution for analytics across digital, traditional, inbound and outbound channels, which enable Merkle’s connected CRM approach.

“I am excited to join the Merkle team and its industry-renowned analytics powerhouse,” said Fisher. “Merkle has created a unique offering by combining its database technology and analytics capabilities, employing enterprise-class solutions across all digital and offline touchpoints. I’m proud to support and deliver the connected CRM vision as it scales to become the de facto enterprise marketing platform.”

Merkle’s chairman and CEO, David Williams, said, “As Merkle continues to expand its analytics capabilities, Andy’s strong reputation in the industry and proven track record will drive Merkle’s continued digital and analytic leadership. Andy will further strengthen our global innovation strategy, drawing from his past leadership roles.”