Singapore – Dentsu International has announced the appointment of Robert Gilby as the new chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, effective on 5 September this year.
He will be responsible for unifying the APAC region’s 11,600 talented people in 18 markets around dentsu’s global ambition to be the most integrated network in the world. In addition, he has 30 years’ experience in the media and entertainment industry and has worked in Asia Pacific for over 25 years.
Gilby joins dentsu from Nielsen where he is president for APAC responsible for building relationships with key media owners, brands and agencies to deliver audience insights across the media ecosystem. Prior to that, he was CEO and founder, Blue Hat Ventures, an investment and advisory firm focussed on identifying and commercialising high-growth businesses in the digital media sector in Asia Pacific.
He has held non-executive board and advisory roles at the Ministry of Communications & Information, the InfoComm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Media Festival.
In his new role, he will be based in Singapore reporting to Wendy Clark, global CEO at Dentsu International, and joins the Dentsu International Executive team.
Speaking on his appointment, he 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.”
He added, “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.”
Meanwhile, Clark commented, “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.”
She added, “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.”
