Dentsu makes leadership changes, unveils global practice chiefs

Dentsu has unveiled a new leadership structure, naming the new heads of its creative, media and CXM 'Global Practices', to replace what previously were known as its 'service lines'.

Under the previously announced leadership of Jean Lin as president of Global Practices, Will Swayne, formerly Dentsu's global client chief now becomes Global Practice president for media. His focus will be to work with media agency brands to ensure they satisfy client needs for scaled growth.

Peter Huijboom, Dentsu's former media CEO for international markets will step away from his role at the end of the year to serve in a client advisory role. As executive advisor of client relations, Huijboom will partner with Dentsu Group COO Giulio Malegori to build a new global client-centric account servicing model within Global Practices. 

Pete Stein, who was previously Merkle's president of Americas, now steps up to lead Merkle globally as their global president and also becomes Dentsu's Global Practice president for CXM. 

Finally, Yasuharu Sasaki, Dentsu's chief creative officer, will now take the title of global chief creative officer as he helms Dentsu’s creative Global Practice. Retaining his current responsibilities, Sasaki will set creative standards for the whole of Dentsu, and will lead Dentsu Creative's go-to-market brand proposition.

The new structure is aimed at furthering the 'One Dentsu' ambition to serve clients better with more seamless, integrated approaches across service lines. In an interview earlier this year, Dentsu global president and chief executive, Hiroshi Igarashi, told Campaign of his eagerness to remove internal barriers and organise around clients. The new leadership is geared towards implementing this shift to make internal systems and structures follow this mindset.

"By creating a cross-service structure, we are simultaneously integrating those capabilities while ensuring clients can still benefit from distinct knowledge,” Hiroshi added of today's announcements.

“With the creation of our Global Practices, Dentsu is making a statement about what the future of integrated, end-to-end client solutions will look like," adds Lin. "Clients tell us they want elegant and seamless services which help them deliver on transformational outcomes. We’re removing the barriers and that will allow us to do just that in a way which very few others in the industry can match.”