Merkle promotes chief to spearhead agency operations

Merkle has promoted former Periscopix chief Thomas Byrne – who joined when the data-driven marketing giant acquired the business in 2015 – to lead its agency operations across EMEA, with a brief to develop its strategic direction, market proposition, and key partnerships, such as with Google.
Since its first major European acquisition in 2015, Merkle EMEA has grown to over 1,300 employees, with 12 offices across five countries.
Byrne will be responsible for building organic growth and expanding Merkle’s agency business across the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Dubai, and Germany, spanning paid search, programmatic display, social media, customer experience, advanced analytics and SEO.
The agency services practice puts data and evidence at the centre of media decisions, in an effort to drive relevance and surface insights. It provides the activation layer for Merkle’s people-based marketing strategy.
Byrne will also join the Merkle EMEA Executive Leadership Team, as the representative for Merkle’s Agency Services division.
Prior to his new role, Byrne was VP growth and partnerships at Merkle, and was previously responsible for growing Periscopix, which he joined in 2009 and was acquired by Merkle in 2015. He played a leading role in taking the agency from 20 to over 280 people.
Merkle EMEA president Michael Komasinski said: “Tom has played a significant role in building our performance media operations in the UK, demonstrating client leadership and developing our strategic media partnerships. This makes him well placed to lead our agency business in EMEA into its next phase of growth.”
Merkle EMEA’s recent growth in the performance media space includes the acquisitions of Divisadero in Spain, Oogst in the Netherlands as part of its Oxyma acquisition, and B2B digital agency DWA, with offices in Munich and London.