Phil Teeman, Rob Hughes among latest out at DAN

Here is a breakdown of recent regional news about Dentsu Aegis Network, including the group's restructure plans and a list of senior staff leaving the company or changing roles in the past few months. 

March 12: Rob Hughes and Phil Teeman have left the network, Campaign learns

Campaign understands that Rob Hughes and Phil Teeman are the latest to be made redundant at Dentsu Aegis Network. 

Rob Hughes has held the title of CEO, North Asia at Dentsu Aegis Network, overseeing Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, since 2013. Prior to this he spent 14 years at Mindshare.

Phil Teeman, who along with Nick Waters was tasked with announcing the January 22 structural changes (see below), has been with DAN since 2015 and has held the role of South East Asia CEO for 11 months. Campaign learns that Teeman had to make many others redundant at the company before he himself was asked to leave. 

DAN has not confirmed Hughes and Teeman's exits. When asked, DAN's communications team said: "We don't comment on specifics and on our people."

March 8: Susana Tsui out; leadership regrouped

Susana Tsui steps down as CEO of DAN China after under a year in the role (during which time we interviewed her on DAN's mission in China and her plans for transformation).

The company announces that Tsui will be replaced by DAN veteran Michelle Lau, working with Jean Lin, who adds non-executive chairperson of Dentsu Aegis Network China to her title as Isobar global CEO.

Concurrently, DAN says it will shuffle its leadership into three new regions: greater North (currently headed temporarily by Hibino), greater South (headed by a newly promoted Ashish Bhasin) and ANZ (headed by Henry Tajer). 

DAN Singapore will be operated separately, under Masaya Nakamura, in addition to his role below. 

February 1: new chief growth officer appointed

Masaya Nakamura, a Dentsu veteran, is appointed APAC chief growth officer reporting to Takaki Hibino. 

January 22: restructure announced

DAN confirms that major changes to its regional media agency structure will involve cutting 2% of jobs. The restructure involved the creation of three new working groups, headquartered from Singapore:

1. Brand Solutions Group
Head: Joanna Catalano, iProspect APAC CEO
Purpose: To bring a mix of staff from Carat, Vizeum, Dentsu X and iProspect to work on new business and new product development. 

2. One Singapore Media Group
Head: Jonathan Chadwick, Carat CEO Asia Pacific 
Purpose: To unite Carat, Vizeum, Dentsu X, iProspect and Amplifi into one media unit. 

3. Client Solutions Group
Purpose: a 'virtual' group to improve client relationships across DAN. 

And one major news story from December 2018:

APAC CEO Nick Waters announces he will leave his position to move to London as executive chairman of DAN UK and Ireland. Takaki Hibino becomes executive chairman of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific in his place.

Read our exit interview with Waters as he prepared to leave the continent in March, and revisit Campaign's Atifa Silk interview with Hibino from 2017, when he discussed becoming Dentsu's first executive officer to be stationed outside Japan.