CEO Wendy Clark is, indeed, leaving Dentsu International – on December 31 as the Japan-owned ad giant moves to “one management team.” Her job, it says, is being “discontinued.”
From January 2023 Dentsu Group Inc. CEO Hiroshi Igarashi will run the agency’s four regions including the three that reported the Clark. Dentsu International’s agencies currently include Dentsu Creative (the former Mcgarrybowen), Carat, iProspect and performance marketer Merkle. Dentsu International came into being when Dentsu bought Aegis Group, the formerly quoted owner of the Carat media agency.
No official word for Clark yet (she’s there until December after all) although the parting seems relatively amicable. One employee of DI earned £13.5m in the past year so that may be a considerable sweetener.
Dentsu is a notoriously opaque and bureaucratic organisation in Japan. It’s hard to see how this loss of (relative) independence will help the international operation.
