Merkle bolsters its executive team with Chief Data & Analytics Officer appointment

Merkle, dentsu’s customer experience management company, has today announced the key appointment of Dr Catherine Lopes into the newly created Chief Data & Analytics Officer role.

Catherine’s appointment bolsters Merkle Australia and New Zealand’s executive line up, and she joins at a time of unprecedented growth for the company as it globally seeks to account for half of dentsu’s revenue over the next few years.

Catherine brings over 20 years’ experience in a wide range of sectors across Asia Pacific and North America and has previously led data and analytics practices at ANZ Banking Group, AGL and ME Bank. Most recently, she is the founder of consulting business OpsDo Analytics, focusing on data strategy, data governance, data capability and analytics use cases. Catherine also spent over a decade as a university lecturer and has completed an award-winning PhD on machine learning.

In addition, Catherine is a champion for supporting women in STEM, co-founding Ada’s Tribe, a community that supports women to grow their career in analytics, data and AI.

Catherine said: “To grow at pace, businesses must leverage analytics, data and AI. For Merkle, that means delivering tangible value to our clients and empowering and enabling them to harness these insights to help them unlock their potential.”

“Merkle has a great foundation whose values are aligned to my own. There is huge potential for growth, and I am excited to join the team at this time to help Merkle dream bigger and deliver amazing experiences for our clients.”

Merkle ANZ CEO John Riccio said: “I am thrilled that Catherine is joining Merkle and the calibre and connections she brings are aligned to our ambition to be the number one customer experience transformation partner for business in Australia and New Zealand. Catherine is a renowned strategic leader who will inspire and invigorate our team and uplift our data and analytics capability, one of the bedrocks of the Merkle business.”

Catherine is based in Melbourne and her remit will include leading and scaling the data and analytics practice capability. She begins her role on July 4.

Her appointment follows the earlier appointments of John Riccio as CEO, Merkle ANZ and President, Merkle APAC, and Steve Yurisich as Chief Growth Officer, Merkle and forms part of a growing executive team, with further appointments to be announced.

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For further information, contact:

Vanessa Desloires Communications & Brand Lead
+61 438 171 255
vanessa.desloires@merkleinc.com.au