Newly created role follows Richard Lees’ elevation to EMEA chief strategy officer of Merkle
LONDON: Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company and part of dentsu, has promoted Niyi Duro-Emanuel to the newly created role of practice lead of the UK Strategy team to drive client progress and transformation.
In this new role, Duro-Emanuel is responsible for leading Merkle’s team of 40 strategists in the UK, providing strategic consultancy to clients across Merkle’s customer experience management and transformation offering.
Duro-Emanuel joined Merkle via the Periscopix acquisition in 2015, now known as Merkle’s performance media practice area, and has been part of the business for over 11 years. Duro-Emanuel initially joined Periscopix in the PPC team, helping to scale the practice to one of the largest and most highly regarded in the UK. Prior to joining the Solutions team 18 months ago, he led the client services team across Merkle’s Media and CX practice areas. He has also held a number of senior client leadership roles, spearheading the development of Merkle’s approach acrosslarge integrated clients within media and analytics.
Niyi Duro-Emanuel, practice lead, UK Strategy, Merkle said: “It’s an exciting time to be leading the UK Strategy team at Merkle. The team and I are focussed on developing an outcomes first proposition for clients, to transform their customer experience capabilities through adopting technology to truly achievetheir desired business outcomes. I’m thrilled to beleading such a talented team and helping our clients deliver a total customer experience across every interaction they have with their brand.”
The UK strategy team was previously led by Richard Lees in a dual role which also spanned the EMEA region. Lees was appointed chief strategy officer for Merkle and dentsu’s CXM Service Line across EMEA in December 2020 and was previously EVP Solutions EMEA. Lees and Duro-Emanuel will continue to collaborate on the adoption, alignment and evolution of the EMEA-wide proposition. The creation of Duro-Emanuel’s UK role allows Lees to focus on an EMEA set of operating methods, bringing together a number of Merkle’s key strategic capabilities to drive value-based outcomes for its clients, and deliver on Merkle’s CXM expertise across the region.
Richard Lees, chief strategy officer EMEA, Merkle, said: “The shift of focussing on business outcomes facilitates investment in technology and other capabilities and sets the foundations for businesses at thestart of their customer transformation journeyof . It supports businesses to not only make their technology work, but to focus on the outcomes from those investments, making them incrementally better and bigger over time. It’s an ambitious team with experienced and multi-skilled staff and with Niyi leading the focus for the UK, we will achieve great success together”.
Anne Stagg, CEO – CXM at dentsu UK & Ireland, and UK CEO, Merkle, added: “This is an incredibly exciting appointment for the UK business. Niyi’s experience in client leadership and in his most recent role, providing strategic consultancy to help clients navigate their customer experience transformation journeys makes him the perfect candidate to lead our first class team of strategists. “
Lees has been instrumental in helping Merkle clients develop integrated solutions to meet a wide range of customer experience needs, across the full spectrum of Merkle’s capabilities and expertise. He first joined Merkle in 2015 as part of the acquisition of DBG, where he was co-founder and CEO. He is adept at helping brands identify the true drivers of business value and leveraging connected data, transformative insights and integrated technology to deliver targeted, personalised and multi-channel experiences.
About Merkle
Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organisations have partnered with Merkle to maximise the value of their customer portfolios. The company’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalised marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 12,000+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. In 2016, the company joined dentsu. For more information, contact Merkle at +44 (0)330 060 6065 or visit www.merkleinc.com/emea
About dentsu international
Part of dentsu, dentsu international is made up of eight leadership brands – Carat, dentsu X, iProspect, Isobar, dentsumcgarrybowen, Merkle, MKTG, Posterscope and supported by its specialist brands. Dentsu International helps clients to win, keep and grow their best customers and achieve meaningful progress for their businesses. With best-in-class services and solutions in media, CXM, and creative, dentsu international operates in over 145 markets worldwide with more than 45,000 dedicated specialists.
