Taverner takes over from Margaret Wagner to support clients deliver and accelerate customer experience transformation

Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company and part of dentsu, has appointed Sam Taverner to the role of chief growth officer EMEA for Merkle, and dentsu’s customer experience management Service Line.

In this role, Taverner will be responsible for providing strategic leadership to new and existing clients, helping them navigate Merkle’s CXM offering across marketing technology, data and analytics, CRM and performance media to deliver effective and efficient customer experience transformation programmes.

Taverner is responsible for further developing and leading a successful and scalable growth platform across EMEA, designed to attract new clients to Merkle’s leading CXM proposition at a regional and country level. Taverner also leads the EMEA Alliances Platform, driving growth across all Merkle’s technology partners, including Adobe, Google, Pega and Salesforce by helping clients work with the right partner to deliver against their individual customer experience (CX) transformation requirements.

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Appointed to run Merkle’s Technology Services division in October 2020, Taverner’s subsequent promotion follows the announcement that Margaret Wagner, previously EMEA chief growth officer, has been appointed president of Merkle and CEO of dentsu’s CXM Line of Business in EMEA, effective 1^st January 2021. Taverner will work closely with Ben Gott, the leader of Merkle’s data and martech division, to ensure clients get the most value from their technology investments and work with the right partners.

Taverner joined Merkle in 2017, as part of the acquisition of Comet Global Consulting, where he was group MD. Prior to this, he has held senior roles at CACI, Experian and Acxiom.

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Margaret Wagner, president of Merkle and CEO of dentsu’s CXM Line of Business across EMEA, said: “Sam has played an incredibly important role in our expansion across EMEA, growing our data and martech operation and establishing our first-class offshore capability to deliver value and excellent service to our clients.

“Over the last four years Sam has brought in and grown business across some of our biggest clients. He has the strategic ability to get under the skin of client challenges and provide leadership to ensure we develop and deliver the best solutions to them. He is an industry leading data and technology expert and builds respect and loyalty within his team. I am very excited about what Sam will achieve for Merkle and our clients.”

Sam Taverner, EMEA chief growth officer, Merkle and dentsu CXM Service Line, said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for Merkle across EMEA, as we evolve our customer experience management proposition and expand our footprint and CX transformation capabilities across the region. Our long-standing history in delivering data-driven, tech-enabled CX capabilities makes Merkle uniquely positioned to support clients deliver and accelerate their transformation programmes. I’m looking forward to helping them navigate the complex data and technology decisions required to accelerate their journeys across Merkle’s CXM offering.”

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