Merkle's Komasinski Named Dentsu Americas CEO

Merkle's Global CEO Michael Komasinski is moving to the role of Chief Executive Officer of Merkle's parent company Dentsu, in the Americas. He succeeds Jacki Kelley, who has left to rejoin Interpublic in the newly created role of EVP / Chief Client Officer.

Marcoms network Dentsu acquired data-driven consumer insights and analytics specialist Merkle in 2016, and Komasinski (pictured) has spent the past eight years with the latter business, culminating in his appointment as its CEO in 2021. In this role he was responsible for overseeing a staff of more than 14,000 employees in more than 50 locations throughout the Americas, EMEA and APAC.

Earlier at Merkle he held a number of roles, including President - Americas, President EMEA, and Global COO. For the past three years he has also worked for Dentsu Group, latterly as its CEO, CXM (Customer Experience Management) International Markets; and he is a member of Dentsu's Group Executive Management team, following the integration of Dentsu International and Dentsu Japan Network. Prior to Merkle he held leadership roles at Razorfish, Schawk Retail Marketing, Nielsen and A.T. Kearney.

Dentsu Group President and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi comments: 'Michael is a charismatic and thoughtful leader who can see the detail required in assessing client needs, while also easily being able to take a step back and develop the strategy needed to drive a large business, and team, forward to success. While heading up Merkle, Michael oversaw the rapid growth of the organisation and his experience in bringing together the skills, technology and data to grow will prove critical as Dentsu takes its next steps towards becoming a people-centred transformation business'.

Web sites: www.dentsu.com and www.merkleinc.com .