Chris Crayner is senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Merkle. Chris has developed and led customer marketing strategy, initiatives, and functions for more than 15 years across multiple industries. In his role as chief strategy officer, he leads Merkle’s Enterprise Strategy Group, which focuses on devising innovative solutions for integrated marketing and customer relationship marketing.
Prior to joining Merkle in 2008, Chris held multiple leadership roles in customer relationship marketing for seven years at The Walt Disney Company. Prior to joining Merkle, was vice president, global customer managed relationships, for Walt Disney Theme Parks and Resorts, where he was responsible for customer relationship marketing strategies and initiatives worldwide. He also served as vice president, technology – corporate brand management where he led CRM business and technology strategy work across Disney’s diversified businesses.
For Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s Nutritional Group, Chris was director of e-business and marketing technical services and led e-business strategy and technical activities for all corporate direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives and programs. Prior to that, Chris was responsible for customer marketing strategy, analytics and measurement for the retail banking group at National City Bank Corporation as vice president marketing, data management, and analytic research. Chris is an alum of Indiana University and Kellogg Management Institute at Northwestern University.
