Dentsu International appoints APAC CEO

Robert Gilby

Media and digital marketing communications company Dentsu International has announced the appointment of Robert Gilby as its CEO of APAC.

Gilby, currently president of APAC at Nielsen, joins the company with 30 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry and has worked in Asia Pacific for over 25 years. Dentsu said that the exec has a proven track-record of growing profitable businesses including WarnerMedia and The Walt Disney Company.

At Dentsu, Gilby will be responsible for the region’s 11,600 staff across 18 markets. He will also build on the recent global launch of Dentsu Creative, while looking to maintain the company’s positive growth in the region.

Gilby will join in September, and will report to Dentsu International global CEO Wendy Clark, who said: “Rob is an exceptionally well-rounded leader with a progressive approach that deeply understands the future of the industry and opportunities for growth, for our people, our clients and our business. Importantly, he clearly demonstrated his long-term vision, values-based leadership style and passion for building high-performance, diverse teams that is fundamental to the way we do business at Dentsu.”

Gilby said: “I was instantly drawn to Dentsu’s compelling vision with its rich heritage as the only holding company born out of Asia. It is a privilege to be leading this region with the world looking to the Asia Pacific region as its GDP growth is forecasted to remain strong, the emerging middle-class booms and rapid digitisation and investment in homegrown platforms leapfrog existing technologies. Dentsu’s ability to understand people better than anyone else and vision for horizontal creativity coupled with these market conditions creates an exciting opportunity for brands to thrive.”