Dentsu’s Merkle picks APAC COO

Dentsu Aegis Network’s Merkle has appointed Frank Zhang (pictured) as chief operating officer of Merkle APAC. Effective immediately, this is in addition to his current role as senior vice president, general manager, Merkle China.The agency said that the regional chief operating officer role is newly established, with primary accountability to "achieve operating excellence" in the region. Zhang will maintain the responsibilities of his Merkle China general manager role and will also work closely with leaders of the Dentsu Aegis Network to further integrate capabilities to better service clients in the region.Zhang brings with him over 20 years of industry experience in organisation development, management consulting and customer relationship marketing experience in the US and APAC. Zhang has been with Merkle for the last five years as head of the Merkle China domestic business, as well as the China Delivery Centre.“Frank is a trusted leader who consistently delivers results for Merkle, clients, and his team. We’re committed to growing the Merkle brand in China and Asia-Pacific, with the market responding well. Frank’s background across all our services and proven success in leading the China market will help charter the next stage to deliver growth in revenue, expand our product innovation, and enhance client value," Shen said."This is a challenging role, but a necessary role for Merkle APAC. As Merkle is expending aggressively in the region, both through organic growth and mergers and acquisitions, we need to ensure our operation remains lean, agile, and cost efficient. I am confident we can achieve this through leveraging finance, human resources, information technology, legal, and global delivery resources from DAN APAC, Merkle Global, and teams in each APAC sub-region," Zhang said.Most recently, Dentsu Aegis Network’s Merkle appointed Ted Bray as managing director of Merkle Southeast Asia, responsible for the success of the Merkle ASEAN business. The appointment is effective immediately and is in addition to his current role as senior VP and chief growth officer for Asia Pacific. he managing director role is the first of its kind for Merkle in Southeast Asia.