Merkle has appointed Dr Catherine Lopes into the newly created role of chief data & analytics officer.
Lopes joins the executive lineup of the Australia and New Zealand branch of dentsu’s customer experience management company as it globally seeks to account for half of its revenue over the next few years.
The newly appointed chief data & analytics officer brings over 20 years of experience to the role, over a wide range of sectors across the Asia Pacific and North America regions. She has previously led data and analytics practices at ANZ Banking Group, AGL and ME Bank.
Most recently, Lopes is the founder of consulting business OpsDo Analytics, focusing on data strategy, data governance, data capability and analytics use cases. She also spent over a decade as a university lecturer and has completed an award-winning PhD on machine learning.
Lopes is also 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.
Lopes said of her new role: “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.”
John Riccio, Merkle ANZ CEO, 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.”
Lopes 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.
Lopes’ appointment follows the earlier appointments of 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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Top image: Dr Catherine Lopes