John Riccio named president of Merkle APAC

John Riccio has been named president of Dentsu's Merkle in APAC, which includes Greater China, Southeast Asia, India, as well as Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). He replaces Zhengda "Z" Shen, who has announced his retirement, effective July 1.

Riccio will continue in his existing role as CEO of Merkle’s ANZ region. He has a background leading customer experience consulting, most recently as experience consulting partner, APAC, for EY. Previously, he held partner positions at PwC in Australia and Asia, and at IBM in the UK.

“John’s extensive regional and global leadership experience will further enable and drive growth and success in this critical region for the business," said Michael Komasinski, global CEO of Merkle. 

Riccio said he was impressed by Merkle's technical expertise and agile approach: “I am excited to expand my ANZ role across the broader APAC region, supporting our clients who have entrusted us to create distinctly better experiences and relationships with their customers across all key technology platforms.” 

Riccio’s promotion coincides with the departure of Z Shen, who is retiring after more than two decades on Merkle’s executive leadership team. Komasinski noted that Shen was instrumental in growing the APAC business from $5 million in one market to $150 million across ten markets, with over 2,000 employees.