• by Larissa Faw , April 28, 2015

As Big Data continues to drive agency agendas, Horizon Media has hired Rick Watrall to the newly created post of chief analytics officer. Watrall will lead the agency’s advanced marketing analytics team, tasked with gleaning actionable insights from data.

“Rick’s strong expertise in driving business performance through analytics will power the opportunity for data to be further infused across our strategy and activation disciplines,” said Bill Koenigsberg, president, CEO and Founder of Horizon Media. “His experience working with Fortune 100 companies will certainly prove to be an invaluable asset to Horizon as we continue to provide the best analytics solutions for our clients.”

Working out of the agency's New York office, Watrall will lead Horizon’s team of analysts, data scientists and statisticians in designing and recommending appropriate analytical approaches across various client and internal needs. 

Watrall is also tasked with building out a new analytics team that will work alongside the agency’s chief information officer, Cliff Cree, to analyze and interpret data to seek causal relationships and provide value to Horizon and its clients. 

Most recently, Watrall was senior Partner at Hudson River Group, where he was responsible for marketing analysis and software applications for strategic and tactical marketing planning as well as return-on-investment optimization.