Euan Jarvie, the CEO of Dentsu UK & Ireland, is leaving after two and a half years in the role to become president at IRI Wordwide, a data tech company working with FMCG and retail brands.
During his time as CEO, the group has cut the number of agency brands from 160 to 6, and made two rounds of redundancies. Dentsu will announce a replacement “in due course” and in the meantime, the company’s CEO for EMEA, Giulio Malegori, will “ensure a smooth transition.”
Dentsu currently has three CEOs in the UK, one each for Creative (James Morris) Media (Hamish Nicklin), and Merkle (Anne Stagg). The decision on who takes over Jarvie’s role will be a signal of intent for the company on where its priorities lie: Jarvie has a straight media background, having started out at Zenith and then worked at Mediacom for 17 and a half years.
Could creative chief James Morris, who also spent a few years at Mediacom but also ran Stink Global for three years before joining Dentsu, and was once on the BAFTA digital committee, be a good fit for the role? Dentsu’s biggest strand remains Carat, but ultimate boss Wendy Clark, ex-DDB, clearly wants to boost the group’s creative firepower too.
Jarvie, who has been with Dentsu for seven years in total, said: “To strengthen and grow, a business needs to adopt the right set of behaviours – from the inside out. It is so much more about ‘what you do’ than ‘what you say’. I have been fortunate to find a unique set of leaders who embraced this belief with a dedication and passion for real collaboration to transform the UK & Ireland business and return it to growth.”
Giulio Malegori, EMEA CEO, Dentsu International, said: “Aligned to Dentsu International’s strategy to be the most integrated agency network in the world, Euan and the UK&I leadership team have led the market back to organic growth, simplified how it operates and brought our leading capabilities in media, CXM and creative closer together under six leadership brands.”
