Change at the Top for Dentsu Group

Japanese holding company Dentsu Group has announced that Toshihiro Yamamoto will retire from his role as President and CEO, to be succeeded by Hiroshi Igarashi from next January. Management of dentsu international (DI) will remain under the leadership of Wendy Clark.

The group owns or has stakes in a wide range of companies and agencies, including data, insights and consumer intelligence firm Merkle, business-to-business research provider B2B International, people-based identification and data tech company 4Cite Marketing, and data-driven audience planning and targeting agency Media Storm.

Yamamoto has led the holding company for five years, before which he held a range of senior positions in the Media Content, Account Management and Business Development divisions. As well as retiring from his President and CEO role, he will also step down from his position as Chairman of the Board - the latter responsibilities will be taken by Tim Andree as Non-Executive Chairman, from March.

Igarashi joined the group in 1984, and is currently Head of Dentsu Japan, a position which will be taken by Norihiro Kuretani. Yamamoto said these changes are designed to strengthen governance and advance the reforms and transformation that dentsu has established to achieve sustainable growth and increase corporate value for Dentsu Group Inc. 'I have been the proud custodian of dentsu for five years and I am confident that Igarashi, Wendy, and Kuretani will lead our people, our clients, and our business into a new and exciting chapter of change'.

Web site: www.group.dentsu.com .