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Dentsu Creative seeks new UK creative chief as part of global restructuring

Dentsu is moving quickly to put its new integrated leadership structure in place: as global CEO Wendy Clark moves on, Simon Lloyd, the chief creative officer of Dentsu Creative UK, is leaving the agency after two years to make room for a new creative leader. Lloyd joined Dentsu in 2020 after 11 years at adam&eveDDB.

The agency is “in advanced talks” with a new creative chief to lead the UK agency’s senior creative trio: Sue Higgs (ECD), Rob Chalmers (chief experience officer) and Matt Potter (chief content officer).

Fred Levron, Dentsu Global CCO

A statement said: “Since joining dentsuMB as its first Chief Creative Officer nearly two years ago, Simon Lloyd has raised the profile of the brand advertising agency, and produced some high-quality work, building a creative department with a 50/50 gender split. The creative leadership role at Dentsu Creative is now different, so Simon is leaving at the end of the month. We wish Simon all the best for the future.”

Dentsu Creative was born from the union of all the creative brands of the Dentsu group – DentsuMB, Isobar and 360i – and was officially launched at Cannes Lions 2022. It is led internationally by global chief creative officer Fred Levron, who was poached from FCB a year ago.

Restructuring the whole of Dentsu is going to be a complex business, and hiring a top UK creative leader may be a challenge now that the network’s figurehead, Clark, is out. The idea is to create one global agency instead of separating out Japan from the rest of the world, and to lose silos in the process.

Outside the UK, Dentsu Creative Italy has just hired Riccardo Regoso as chief creative officer. He was previously Global ECD of Publicis Italy, one of Publicis Groupe’s strongest agencies.

In a statement, Dentsu said: “Since joining DentsuMB as its first chief creative officer nearly two years ago, Simon Lloyd has raised the profile of the brand advertising agency, and produced some high-quality work, building a creative department with a 50/50 gender split. The creative leadership role at Dentsu Creative is now different, so Simon is leaving at the end of the month. We wish Simon all the best for the future.”

At the same time, UK president Gareth Collins, who joined Dentsu from Leo Burnett and Fallon in 2019, has been moved to a regional integrated client leadership role on the Generali financial services account.

A Dentsu statement said: “Gareth joined dentsuMB London as CEO in April 2019 and since then has strengthened, diversified, and grown the agency, overseeing the successful integration of BJL Manchester, MKTG Live and MKTG International.”

It is unclear whether a new president will be part of the restructure, but James Morris, who joined Dentsu at the same time as Collins, continues in his role as CEO EMEA & UK. Morris previously worked in global roles at Stink and Mediacom.

 

 

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