Douglas Merrill

President, Digital Business, EMI Music

Douglas Merrill was appointed president, Digital Business at EMI Music in April 2008. In this new role he will head a global function which brings together all EMI Music’s digital strategy, innovation, business development, supply chain and global technology activities.

Merrill holds a BA from the University of Tulsa in Social and Political Organisation and an MA and Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University. He began his career at the RAND Corporation where he was an information scientist, studying topics such as computer simulation in education, team dynamics and organisational effectiveness. He subsequently moved to Price Waterhouse to work on security implementation practices before joining Charles Schwab and Co, one of America’s largest financial services providers. As a senior vice president, Merrill was responsible for such functions as information security, common infrastructure, and human resources strategy and operations.

In late 2003 Merrill joined Google. During his five years with the company, he rose to become chief information officer and vice president of engineering, responsible for all billing and revenue technology and processes for Google worldwide, together with internal engineering and support worldwide. 

At Google he led multiple strategic efforts including the company’s IPO in 2004 and its related investor programme and regulatory activities. He was also responsible for the 2006 launch of Google Checkout which is now a multi-billion dollar business. In 2007 he was tasked with leading the turnaround of Google’s radio advertising business, which he put back on a growth trajectory, and most recently was asked by Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, to drive Google’s strategy and business development activity in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, the two fastest growing broadband populations in the world. 

Last updated April 2008