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������has named Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis as its first-ever global head of Data & Analytics, effective November 19. Kotziagkiaouridis, a 20-plus-year veteran of the data and analytics industry, will develop and scale an offering that will be integrated across the firm’s capabilities and business units. He will also have oversight of ������Intelligence, Edelman’s global research and analytics consultancy led by Antoine Harary made up of 210 people, and the firm’s digital analytics capabilities. Kotziagkiaouridis will be based in Dallas and report to Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman.

“We are facing a new era of relationships requiring data-driven capabilities that will allow us to identify and inform people in communities of interest and motivate them to start movements,” said Edelman. “We have made great strides in this area through the work ������Intelligence is doing with the ������Trust Management suite of services. We will be introducing a similar group of services around brands next summer. Yannis is a world-class talent whose experience will enable us to build and scale a data and analytics offer that will be integrated across the network, and we will also consider acquisitions in this space.”

Kotziagkiaouridis, who will become a member of the firm’s Global Operations Committee, joins ������from Wunderman Thompson, where he was most recently global chief analytics officer. At Wunderman Thompson, Kotziagkiaouridis was responsible for driving A.I. and machine learning applications into content creation and media activation for some of the largest brands in the world. He established a marketing neuroscience data practice focused on creating customer level cognitive data and innovated in the applications of motivation and emotion signals in effective brand communications.

He also led a number of initiatives, including a global A.I. innovation council, which focused on audience, content, activation and experimentation. Through these efforts, he was instrumental in building global partnerships with IBM and Google to drive adoption of analytics platforms and tools across the organization.

“Data plays a unique role in today’s complex marketing environment, where brands are expected to stand for something and improve society,” said Kotziagkiaouridis. “Data allows us to better understand people and their motivations as well as to identify opportunity and measure impact. Edelman, with its focus on trust, is uniquely positioned to transform how organizations look at data and analytics to bring effective, differentiated communications to life.”

Throughout his career, Kotziagkiaouridis and his teams have garnered a number of honors, including Effies, and more recently, a Bronze Cannes Lion in the Media category. Kotziagkiaouridis has been a speaker at I-COM, +Cartagena, Social Media Week, the 4A’s and IBM Think.

Prior to joining Wunderman, Kotziagkiaouridis was vice president of CRM Analytics and Strategy at Merkle. His vertical industry experience includes insurance, healthcare, financial services, retail banking, and B2B. Before joining Merkle, he was vice president of Analytics Strategy at TPG, a boutique direct-to-consumer agency, part of Omnicom Group.

Kotziagkiaouridis holds a Business Economics degree from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, an MBA from the University of New Haven, and a Post-Master’s in Quantitative Analysis from Drexel University.

������ Edelman

������is a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote and protect their brands and reputations. Our 6,000 people in more than 60 offices deliver communications strategies that give our clients the confidence to lead and act with certainty, earning the trust of their stakeholders. Our honors include the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for PR; Advertising Age’s 2019 A-List; the Holmes Report’s 2018 Global Digital Agency of the Year; and, five times, Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work. Since our founding in 1952, we have remained an independent, family-run business. ������owns specialty companies ������Intelligence (research) and United Entertainment Group (entertainment, sports, lifestyle).