Vodafone Martech Exec Joins Merkle in EMEA Role

Data-driven marketing and CX management company Merkle has appointed Simon Esland in the new role of VP Practice Lead, Marketing Decisioning, overseeing its partnership with Pegasystems. Esland was previously Group Head of Marketing Technology Strategy at Vodafone.

Merkle has been working with Pega Marketing and Decisioning since 2005, helping to implement its Customer Decision Hub in client firms; and in 2017 partnered to launch a DMP solution helping marketers optimize ad spend, reduce attrition and increase revenues.

Esland's experience includes leading one of the largest such implementations while at Vodafone Group. He will now lead the Decisioning practice in Europe - part of its Merkle's Customer Experience Management (CXM) service line - and support Merkle's expansion across all fourteen of its markets there. He reports to Ben Gott, SVP, Practice Lad, Marketing Solutions EMEA who comments: 'I have no doubt that with Simon's knowledge, ability and leadership, he will make a great success of his new role, deploying the most experienced Pega team in the UK across EMEA, and putting transformational work at the heart of our CXM business'.

Merkle has more than 9,600 employees - one fifth of the total for its parent company dentsu international - and is headquartered in Columbia, MD, USA with 50+ additional offices throughout the US, EMEA and APAC.

Web site: www.merkle.com .