Merkle Names Michael Komasinski Global CEO as Craig Dempster Retires

Merkle has promoted from within to replace the retiring global CEO Craig Dempster, who spent 15 years with Merkle and four under Dentsu International following its acquisition of Merkle. The data-driven performance marketing agency has named former president of Merkle Americas Michael Komasinski to take his place and also serve as a member of the Dentsu International executive team, effective Jan. 1, 2022. Komasinski will report to Dentsu global CEO Wendy Clark, and will lead one of Dentsu's six brands, which has 12,000 employees across more than 50 offices in the Americas, EMA and APAC. "He shares our collective ambition to become the most integrated agency network, delivering integrated solutions to drive growth for our clients across creative, media and CXM," Clark said in a statement. The holding company is undergoing a transition to consolidate its 160 agencies into six brands, with Merkle being at the core of the holding company's data offerings. During an interview with Adweek, Clark said Merkle is offering clients the ability to guide their digital transformation through consulting with "a deep consumer understanding at the heart of Merkle that informs sales, service, commerce and marketing." Merkle currently counts Dell, T-Mobile, Samsung, Geico, Kimberly-Clark and NBC Universal as clients. Clark said that Merkle, as it leans into its consulting capabilities, is increasingly finding itself in pitches against consultancies like Deloitte and Accenture rather than squaring off against its peers at other holding companies like Acxiom and Epsilon. Komasinski was previously tasked with leading Merkle Americas' operations, which included 7,000 employees, and driving the agency's CXM capabilities. Komasinski will be charged with continuing to integrate Merkle into Dentsu's complete offerings, saying that it demonstrates "to our clients the breadth of capability we offer to deliver integrated marketing solutions and business outcomes." Earlier this year, Merkle completed a key acquisition of LiveArea to strengthen its global experience and commerce capabilities. In the statement, Komasinski said Merkle will continue to focus on the tightening talent market as its employees are the "lifeblood of brands like Merkle," which falls in line with Clark's priorities as the head of Dentsu International. Clark told Adweek that the network is aiming to provide more flexibility for employees, as well as mobility throughout the network. Additionally, Clark emphasized transparency and visibility from leadership has been at the core of Dentsu's strategy to keep employees engaged and informed. That's resulted in better scores in leadership visibility in employee engagement surveys. No replacement for Komasinski as the president of Merkle Americas has been announced yet. Craig Dempster Retires After spending 15 years with Merkle, Dempster will retire from the business at the end of the year. "Craig has been instrumental in growing the Merkle business over the past 15 years," Clark said in a statement. "He leaves the brand in great shape with a strong client portfolio, a solid leadership team and a business that is much more integrated into Dentsu." Dempster held a number of roles during his tenure at Merkle, beginning as evp of content solutions in 2006, and eventually becoming president of Merkle Americas. He took over for David Williams as global CEO in April 2020. “I am immensely proud of what we as a brand have achieved over these past 15 years," Dempster said in a statement, adding that's Dentsu's emphasis on putting data at the heart of the business has allowed it to provide clients with a seamless and integrated experience. Dentsu Group Records Positive Growth as It Continues Transformation Strategy