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.
