Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency and part of Dentsu Aegis Network, announced the appointment of Ted Stites to executive vice president, customer experience and marketing technology solutions for Merkle’s Asia Pacific region. 

Stites will be responsible for the creation, execution, and overall performance of Merkle’s experience and marketing platform business, as well as remaining closely aligned to Merkle’s alliance and software partners. 

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Merkle team in Asia Pacific and look forward to bringing Merkle’s people-based marketing capabilities to the Asian markets — helping clients deliver superior customer experiences and build competitive advantage,” said Stites.

Stites has nearly 20 years of industry expertise in marketing analytics, optimization, and automation, working with Fortune 1000 companies. Most recently, he served as the executive vice president of customer experience at Merkle in the Americas, and before that, he was the senior vice president, digital channel optimization where he led the experience and marketing platforms solution and delivery teams. 

Prior to joining Merkle, Stites created the strategy and insights practice for digital experience agency Siteworx, as well as served as the president of Numeric Analytics, a digital analytics and optimization firm in the United States.  

Zhengda ‘Z’ Shen, president, Merkle Asia Pacific, said: “Ted has been instrumental in rapidly growing Merkle’s experience and marketing platform business both in the United States and EMEA over the past three years. With Ted’s leadership, Merkle has emerged as one of the leading United States providers in this space and earned multiple industry accolades. 

“Ted’s track record of creating and growing strategic relationships with top marketing platform players like Adobe, Salesforce and Oracle will accelerate Merkle’s ability to service strategic clients at scale. I’m very excited about the market opportunities in Asia Pacific, and I look forward to having Ted join our leadership team to continue the strong growth momentum,” he added. 

Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, said: “Merkle is a key part of Dentsu Aegis’ acceleration strategy and development in the area of people-based marketing in Asia Pacific. As we continue to evolve our performance offering in the region, we also invest in our people, who are essential to unlocking the power of data to create more engaging and powerful experiences.” 

The appointment continues Dentsu Aegis’ investment of Merkle in Asia Pacific, with offices now operating in four markets Australia, China, Singapore and India.