Storyboard18 | Robert Gilby joins Dentsu International as CEO APAC

Robert (Rob) Gilby will take over as CEO APAC, Dentsu International, from September 5, 2022.

Dentsu International has appointed Robert (Rob) Gilby as CEO APAC, Dentsu International, effective 5 September 2022. He joins the Japanese ad network from Nielsen where he is President, 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 focused 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 and Information, the InfoComm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Media Festival. Gilby will be based in Singapore reporting to Wendy Clark, Global CEO, Dentsu International, and joins the Dentsu International Executive team.

Commenting on the development, Clark 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.”

“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 digitization 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,” added Gilby.

Gilby will be responsible for unifying the APAC region’s 11,600  employees in 18 markets around the company’s ambition to be the “most integrated network in the world.” His appointment follows the global launch of DENTSU CREATIVE, with dentsu awarded Asia Pacific Regional Network of the Year and Dentsu Creative India named Global Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

It took Dentsu International over nine months to hire its APAC CEO. The company is yet to identify it’s India CEO, a position that’s vacant since August 2021. Over the last one year, the Indian unit of has been rocked by a series of senior-level and mid-level exits deepening turmoil at the advertising company. Gilby’s biggest task ahead is to take care of his people.