Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management company and part of dentsu, has promoted Vimal Badiani to MD of Merkle and dentsu’s Customer Experience Management (CXM) Service Line for the MENA region.

In this new role, Vimal will be responsible for leading and growing the business by helping clients deliver a total customer experience across every engagement they have with their brand, through Merkle’s leading CXM proposition including customer relationship management (CRM), data and advanced analytics and performance media.

Previously head of performance, Vimal, is a respected leader within the dentsu group in MENA. He joined Merkle UK in 2016 as head of paid search through the acquisition of its performance media agency Periscopix, now Merkle’s media agency. He moved to MENA in 2017 to develop Merkle’s performance business. In his new role he will focus on driving data and digital transformation to deliver measurable business outcomes for clients.

Vimal Badiani, MD, Merkle MENA, said “I am incredibly proud to have been given the opportunity to lead the Merkle MENA business and the dentsu CXM service line. My focus will be on delivering growth and maturity through new business support and existing client engagement, providing a total customer experience, underpinned by a strong data foundation, proof in performance media execution and highlighting the value of CRM strategies for nurture. We now have a strong management team in place to deliver against these goals as we support existing and new brands on their customer experience transformation journeys, and I am excited for what the future holds.”

Tarek Daouk, CEO of Dentsu MENA said: “I am delighted to appoint Vimal to lead the Merkle MENA operation and continue the business’s achievements, leading the next phase of Merkle’s evolution by further developing and scaling the company’s market-leading capabilities.“

Beth Williams, newly appointed head of Performance Media at Merkle MENA, has been in the Merkle business for eight years, gaining market experience in Europe, APAC and now MENA. Beth has a huge depth of experience across Ad Tech platforms, as well as building additional service lines for Merkle MENA in Feed Management. Beth will now take on the role of overseeing our growing Performance Team in Dubai and Lebanon, as well as being involved in our top tier clients, ensuring we continue to drive our clients’ maturity and our teams’ capabilities forward.

Merkle MENA’s team of 34 people work across some of the most prestigious brands in the region, catering to different service lines and industry verticals. These service lines will now be led by a strong management team with Beth Williams in her new capacity as head of performance, Leon Molenkamp leading Marketing Solutions, Roshan Mall as director of Analytics and Laura Gleadhill, commercial lead for Performance.