Sr. Director IT · VP IT · CIO-Track
20+ years building technology organizations others didn't think were possible — during M&As, security breaches, pandemics, and growth cycles. Across Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
About
Sr. Director, Global IT — Enterprise Engineering · Digital Workplace · Platform Strategy
GoTo Technologies · 2021–Present
Every role Christian Merkel has held came during a transformation — a spin-off, a merger, a separation, a crisis, a growth phase. There's a pattern there, and it's intentional: he moves toward complexity, not away from it.
Over 20 years and across three continents, he has built technology organizations that combine rigorous operational depth with real team development. At Citrix he led the EMEA IT separation for the GetGo spin-off — 10 countries in 120 days. At LogMeIn he unified global UC infrastructure across two merged organizations. At GoTo he built GoPilots, launched AI-driven service operations, drove Zero Trust to 3,500+ endpoints across 40 countries, and led IT's response during the 2022 LastPass security breach — de facto CIO in the seat with no CIO present.
His approach: build playbooks before you need them, develop people before you need them, and make IT so clearly connected to business outcomes that the "cost center" conversation stops happening.
Bilingual English/German. Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner. Certified External Data Protection Officer (GDPR). Operates comfortably under SOX and ISO 27001 compliance.
Quantified Impact
Full remote infrastructure deployed for 4,000+ employees during COVID-19. 65,000+ monthly call sessions sustained.
M&A infrastructure separation across 30+ countries, 600+ users. Including LastPass carve-out during active security breach.
AI-driven ticket deflection via Tech-E, GoTo's internal AI assistant. Built and launched through the GoPilots program.
IT NPS improvement — from ~40 to 65 — through communication reform, not technology changes.
VPN dependency eliminated. Zero Trust rollout to 3,500+ endpoints across 40 countries. Zero productivity disruption.
Annualized cost savings delivered. $1M+ from MPLS retirement alone. $125K+ from single SmartNet renewal renegotiation.
MTTR reduction across EMEA. LogicMonitor deployment enabled 42% faster root cause analysis.
Technology portfolio owned end-to-end — global infrastructure, engineering platforms, digital workplace, and IT operations across 40+ countries.
CSAT improvement from AI service operations. Tech-E reduced Tier 1 load while raising satisfaction simultaneously.
Selected Work
Not a list of responsibilities. A record of things actually built.
Built an agile pilot validation framework inside IT: problem owner + cross-functional team + 6–8 week window + hard kill criteria at week 4. Launched Tech-E (AI support bot), which hit 28% ticket deflection and a 12-point CSAT improvement. Program expanded beyond IT into HR, Finance, and Sales.
Deployed Zscaler-based Zero Trust architecture to 3,500+ endpoints across 40 countries. 100% adoption. VPN dependency fully eliminated. Zero disruption to employee productivity. Executed alongside infrastructure modernization while the business scaled.
Acting de facto CIO during the 2022 LastPass security breach — with no CIO in seat. Coordinated infrastructure containment with Mandiant forensic teams, briefed board-level stakeholders, managed the carve-out separation in parallel. Infrastructure separated in under 60 days across 30+ countries.
Led IT execution across every major transaction: Citrix→GetGo spin-off (10 countries, 120 days), GetGo→LogMeIn merger (1,100+ users unified), Bold360 divestiture (600+ users, 30 countries, 60 days), LastPass carve-out, Miradore integration. Built the Infrastructure Autonomy Playbook — pre-decided separation answers used across every subsequent deal.
Retired 10+ datacenter locations down to 3 global hubs. Decommissioned MPLS in favour of SD-WAN and SIP-based cloud communications. Migrated 2,400+ users from legacy PBX/Cisco to GoToConnect cloud telephony across 12 countries. Reduced telecom OpEx by $1.04M+ annually.
Raised internal IT satisfaction by 25 points — not through technology upgrades but through communication reform. First response time discipline, proactive status updates, resolution quality tracking, and eliminating auto-generated "resolved" messages. Introduced IT Newsletter and TED Talk Series as culture-building transparency tools.
Leadership Lens
Every role has come during something — a spin-off, a merger, a pandemic, a security breach with an empty CIO seat. That's not a career of bad timing. It's a pattern. Organizations don't call the same person into every fire by accident.
In September 2022, that pattern produced its hardest test. No CIO in role. The LastPass breach hit. He sat with the Mandiant forensic team, briefed the C-suite, ran infrastructure containment across 30+ countries — simultaneously — and made the decisions that shaped how the incident was managed at every level. Not because the title required it. Because the team, the architecture, and the playbooks built in quiet years made it possible.
The through-line across all of it: build the team before you need it, document the playbook before the deal, wire the infrastructure for the scenario that hasn't arrived yet. When it arrives — and it always does — the difference between an organization that executes and one that scrambles was decided two years earlier. That's the shift from being an operator of systems to being an architect of outcomes.
"I've never inherited a stable environment. At this point, I've stopped expecting to."Start a conversation
Focus Areas
Operating Principles
Every M&A separation ran faster because the Infrastructure Autonomy Playbook existed before any deal closed. Good IT leaders pre-decide the answers so execution time is execution — not planning.
The more clearly IT connects architecture, service quality, and operating choices to business outcomes, the more meaningful its seat at the table becomes. You can't contain what you haven't mapped. And you can't lead what you haven't explained.
IT tools built by IT people, for IT people. GoPilots is GoTo's Customer Zero initiative — where the IT org runs its own products at enterprise scale and feeds that experience into product development. 233 feature requests submitted. 46% integrated into the product. That's influence through credibility, not lobbying.
Strong execution is a byproduct of clear ownership, honest communication, and teams that feel trusted enough to improve the system around them. It is not a byproduct of surveillance, heroics, or over-reporting.
Disagreement is data. The teams that move fastest are the ones where people say the hard thing early and then commit without resentment. That starts with the leader modeling it first, every time.
Tech-E didn't deflect 28% of tickets because the AI was good. It worked because we defined success metrics before deployment, automated the boring stuff first, and built feedback loops that made the model better over time.
Career Arc
Published Work & Media
"Today is ticketed. Tomorrow is productized."
Featured alongside Mike Barry (Managing Operating Partner, Francisco Partners), Joseph George (GM, ITSG), and moderated by Christopher Savio. The conversation: how IT leaders shift from operating systems to architecting outcomes — and why the leaders who win will measure success in business impact, not activity.
Digital workspace scale-up, SaaS consolidation, support modernization, and trust-based leadership — through the lens of how an internal IT organization evolves under real pressure.
Read article →How technology leaders communicate value, position IT strategically, and connect operational work to business outcomes. German-language executive webinar.
Watch webinar →Featured panelist on how technology leaders quantify, communicate, and prove the strategic value IT brings to the wider business — moving the conversation from cost to investment.
View on LinkedIn →Partnering IT with product and development teams so internal needs help shape tools that are better for employees and customers alike. The GoPilots framework in practice.
View post →LinkedIn Content
Writing that reflects the real work — not polished takes from a content team.
Recognition & Visibility
Executive recognition for building and scaling the GoPilots Innovation-as-a-Service program — including the Tech-E AI assistant that became the flagship internal AI deployment.
Digital workspace scale-up, SaaS consolidation, support modernization, and trust-based leadership featured across the GoTo executive platform.
Read article →Featured speaker on how technology leaders quantify, articulate, and prove the strategic and operational value IT delivers to organizations.
External commentary on IT relevance, hybrid work, and executive technology leadership published across European professional and business media.
Watch webinar →Get in Touch
Reaching out on executive leadership roles, advisory conversations, speaking, and future-oriented discussions around enterprise technology strategy, AI operations, and global IT transformation.
