Will Swayne named as dentsu’s Global Practice President – Media

Dentsu has announced the launch of its Global Practices structure and key leadership, to be led by Global Practices Group President Jean Lin. The news underpins dentsu’s ambition to build highly integrated, people-centered, end-to-end solutions to drive transformational client growth, while emphasizing dentsu’s commitment to its enduring global leadership brands including Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Merkle and Tag.

Yasuharu Sasaki becomes Global Chief Creative Officer, leading dentsu’s Global Creative Practice. In this new role leading dentsu’s global Creative practice, Sasaki will be responsible for driving expertise to unlock the full potential of dentsu’s Creative capability and impact across all practice areas. He will lead the go-to-market brand proposition of Dentsu Creative and nurture global practitioners in creative, planning, innovation and design to build a strong community. In addition to building a world-class creative practice, Sasaki will set the creative standard, and reinforce dentsu’s creative philosophy and culture across practices for the whole of dentsu. He retains his current responsibilities.

Will Swayne becomes Global Practice President – Media. In this role Swayne is responsible for leading dentsu’s Global Media Practice. His focus will be on building a winning Media Practice community that delivers continued excellence in its offering to clients, driving client growth and transformation. He will partner with dentsu’s four Regions and its three global media brands, working closely with their respective Global Brand Presidents including Fiona Lloyd (Carat) and Amanda Morrissey, (iProspect). Swayne will set the vision to future-proof dentsu’s media capability, enable media brands to be the gateway to scaled client growth, and deliver implementation excellence powered by dentsu’s supply side management platform Amplifi. He will work and partner closely with the other Practices, as well as dentsu’s Client Leadership and Data/Technology team to deliver client-centric, industry leading integrated solutions.

Pete Stein becomes Global Practice President – CXM. Pete Stein becomes Global Practice President - CXM and will take over the global leadership role of Merkle as Global President of Merkle. In this role, he will partner with all four Regions to ensure the implementation of the dentsu transformation agenda and Global CXM Practice initiatives in Region and Market. The soul of data-driven inquisitiveness and innovation sets Merkle and dentsu’s global CXM offering apart from competition. With Stein’s leadership dentsu will continue to expand data-driven experiences with best-in-class technology to deliver digital transformation for clients – a critical foundation for dentsu to deliver experience transformation. Stein will retain his role leading CXM in Americas.

“With the creation of our Global Practices, dentsu is making a statement about what the future of integrated, end-to-end client solutions will look like. Clients tell us they want elegant and seamless services which help them deliver on transformational outcomes. We’re removing the barriers and that will allow us to do just that in away which very few others in the industry can match,” said Jean Lin, Group President – Global Practices, Dentsu Group Inc. “I’m so proud to bring together this new line-up of Global Practice Leads and, in turn, their leadership teams, to do just that – unlock the potential of dentsu’s integrated capabilities to help our clients not only grow, but answer some of the greatest challenges of our time.”

“As a fundamental part of our One dentsu strategy, we are bringing together the talent, innovation and structures that truly position dentsu as a global, integrated growth and transformation partner to brands,” commented Hiroshi Igarashi, President and CEO, Dentsu Group Inc.. “Under Jean’s leadership, within our Global Practice structure, we count many of the world’s most respected and historic agency brands, full of deep expertise and differentiated services. By creating a cross-service structure, we are simultaneously integrating those capabilities while ensuring clients can still benefit from distinct knowledge.”