Merkle has today appointed Steve Yurisich as Chief Executive Officer for Australia and New Zealand, replacing John Riccio who is moving into a dedicated role for the company’s Asia-Pacific business.  

Yurisich has been with Merkle since March 2022, joining as Chief Growth Officer and has been instrumental in establishing the client leadership strategy over the last year. This has included developing and executing the strategies and frameworks necessary to strengthen Merkle’s net-new and organic growth at scale and form stronger partnership alliances across the region.  

Riccio assumed a dual-hatted Chief Executive Office role in April last year, overseeing the development of the Merkle brand across both ANZ and APAC. This has included the recent acquisition of Aware Services to further bolster Merkle’s Salesforce and data practice offering. 

Michael Sullivan, a current Director at Aware Services, will be moving into the role of Chief Growth Officer for Merkle ANZ. 

Patricio De Matteis, dentsu ANZ Chief Executive Officer, said: “John has done a brilliant job leading the Merkle brand in both the ANZ and APAC regions since April 2022. With momentum building, it is now time to have a dedicated leader in each region.  

“John will move into the APAC role in May, and we’re excited to announce Steve Yurisich will be stepping into the role of CEO for ANZ. Steve has been an integral part of our leadership team and will continue to play a key role in helping us build Merkle as a leading customer experience and transformation business.  

“With this, we’re also excited to be appointing Michael Sullivan as our new Chief Growth Officer for Merkle ANZ, which is a brilliant opportunity for us to further integrate the Aware and dentsu teams,” said De Matteis.   

Steve Yurisich, Merkle ANZ Chief Executive Officer said: “I’m thrilled to be stepping into the role of CEO for Merkle ANZ and leading such a passionate team of craft specialists.  

“It has been a fantastic 12 months leading the growth team, building deeper connections with our existing clients while creating new pathways for Merkle to expand,” said Yurisich.  

The changes will come into effect from 1 May 2023.