As Wendy Clark heads for exit, Dentsu to drop international CEO role in the restructuring

Hiroshi Igarashi, CEO of the Japanese parent will take the direct control.

Dentsu is planning to drop the role of international chief executive and move to a single, global operation–a restructure that is expected to lead to Wendy Clark, the current international CEO, heading for the exit as reported by Campaign India.

Dentsu Group Inc, the Japanese parent company, may announce in the coming days that she is stepping down as part of a global reorganisation that will bring together its two subsidiaries, Dentsu International and Dentsu Japan, as one operation.

Currently, Hiroshi Igarashi, chief executive and president of Dentsu Group Inc, heads the two subsidiaries: Dentsu International under the leadership of Clark, with the CEOs of the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA reporting to her, and Dentsu Japan under the leadership of Norihiro Kuretani.

As per the new structure, Igarashi will take direct control of all four of Dentsu’s regions globally–the Americas, Asia Pacific, EMEA and Japan.

Dentsu has been pushing a “One Dentsu” strategy to bring its international and Japanese businesses closer together and industry sources said the move to four regions under one global leader would be a logical outcome.

“A cross-functional global team of our executive leaders has been working on our long-term roadmap for Dentsu,” the company said. “We have strong confidence that this will continue our progress in driving growth and making client impact. We expect to communicate more fully as we finalise this planning process.”

Jacki Kelley is CEO of the Americas, Giulio Malegori is CEO of EMEA and Robert Gilby is CEO of APAC.

The expected restructure follows a series of significant changes at the top of Dentsu Group Inc at the begining of 2022.

Igarashi, who previously headed Japanese business and was co-chief operating officer of Dentsu Group Inc, became CEO and president of the parent company.

Tim Andree, the chairman of Dentsu International is now non-executive chairman of Dentsu Group Inc.