McPherson's job title will be head of data marketing and strategy, and the role is understood to be a similar but expanded version of that created by Ping, who worked for the newspaper group for 14 years.
Marc Sands, the Guardian's director of marketing, said the appointment "marks a significant investment in the next phase of data marketing development at GNM, mirroring our belief that data is an increasingly valuable tool in our marketing activity".
Ping left the Guardian at the end of 2007 and joined Ai Data Intelligence in January 2008 as client services director. During Ping's tenure, the Guardian embraced one-to-one marketing, built a reader database and adopted digital channels to acquire new customers.
McPherson worked for First Direct for 10 years as business systems manager and joined the FT in 2004, where his remit included FT.com. At GNM, he will report to Sands and manage a team of nine.
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