Merkle appoints first chief data and analytics officer

Customer experience management (CXM) company Merkle has appointed Dr Catherine Lopes as its first chief data and analytics officer.

Lopes joins Merkle bringing 20 years experience leading data and analytics practices at ANZ Banking Group, AGL and ME Bank.

She also founded consulting business OpsDo Analytics, specialising in data analytics strategy development, cloud migration for data analytics, advanced analytics process and data governance establishment.

Speaking on the appointment, Lopes 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.”

Her remit as chief data and analytics officer is to lead and scale Merkle’s data and analytics practice capability, the company said.

According to Merkle ANZ CEO John Riccio, “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.”

Lopes’ appointment follows other recent Merkle appointments including CEO Riccio, and chief growth officer Steve Yurisich.

Lopes was also recently appointed as a governing board member of Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA), By the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change.

Commenting on the appointment in a recent Linkedin post, she said, “I am extremely honored, humbled and excited to join the EPA Governing Board, and looking forwards to working closely with the board led by Chair Professor Kate Auty and the team led by CEO Lee Miezis PSM on our journey to protect our environment together!”