Angela Tangas becomes chief commercial officer of Dentsu Aegis Network
Staff shuffles within the Denstu Aegis Network (DAN) are continuing, with Angela Tangas becoming chief commercial officer of the group.
Tangas joined DAN early last year as managing director of the recently rebranded Dentsu X. Less than 12 months later, however, she took on the newly created role of executive director of business operations for the wider group.
Tangas has another new role
At the time, it was announced Carat’s chief strategy officer Sam Hegg, would fill the void left by Tangas at Dentsu X.
In her new role, Tangas will take responsibility for Denstu Solutions – a new offering which DAN says will “support the way DAN delivers its capabilities to help clients”.
DAN said since joining the business, Tangas has been instrumental in embedding a culture of client centricity, and has remained focused on driving value for clients across the consumer journey.
“Angela joined the business just over a year ago and, in my time here, has been tenacious in her pursuit to optimise our capabilities, strengthen our offering and make us more competitive in market,” DAN CEO Henry Tajer said.
“Angela is a highly talented, client centric thinker with highly relevant experience on the client side. As we reorganise ourselves as a Group, I know that we’ll continue to benefit from her expertise and energy.”
Tangas added: ““Clients are increasingly relying on partnerships they can trust to recommend and deliver solutions that meet both the challenges of today and the opportunities of tomorrow. I look forward to continuing to shape us as the agency partner of the future.”
Tangas’ appointment seems to fit into the wider DAN restructure which began in May. A few months into Tajer’s tenure as CEO, DAN made a number of executives redundant, including Adrian Roeling, president of Amplifi. Nick Seckold, managing director of marketing agency iProspect, and Andrew Hewett, head of public affairs and communications for DAN, were the other team members impacted by the round of redundancies.
Tajer’s restructure continued with the departure of Carat managing director Simon Williams. Williams’ role was called into question when Sue Squillace was named CEO, but his departure was in contradiction to DAN’s assertion that Williams would stay in his role following Squillace’s appointment.
DAN media agencies have also faced a tumultuous time. Carat has lost accounts including Super Retail Group, Virgin Australia, Asahi, Mondelēz International, Amart, and Bega.
Despite hiring Squillace, Alex Smith (client lead), Marnie McKeown (head of content services and media integration), Dick Laurie (strategy director)and Tom Andrews (returning to lead the $19.4m Disney account), and promoting Danni Wright to a national role, a number of staff movements have impacted the agency. Carat CEO Paul Brooks left to join Nine, while it’s also lost CMO Andrea Rule (moving to LinkedIn), head of strategy Alex James (shifting to a similar role at PHD), head of digital Michael Corry (jumping ship to 303 Mullen Lowe), and the former head of the Disney account, Laura Bartal (becoming partner at Lacuna).
Vizeum saw Travis Day resign as MD last July, national head of client solutions Corinne Moth left to join OMD as a business director, and it lost the $15m AFL account early this year.
Dentsu X also lost the Australia Post account to Wavemaker.
DAN’s Asia Pacific operations have also seen a number of senior-level exits.
How could it happen that Australia’s number one media agency for nine straight years has come to this? Harold Mitchell sold the business and stepped down in 2013; at that time they held 12 of the top 20 clients in the country. The once great Australian business, entirely led by top Australian media people is now a mere shadow of its former greatness.
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This will be the third change in role responsibility for Angela in 12 months.
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Good for you Tangas! You have been an amazing talent in this industry!
Meanwhile where does Reg Davidson fit in the whole equation? Heard he is back with his mate! Good for him too!
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Such indecisiveness does not send very positive signals to clients.
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You seem like a bitter ex-employee with an axe to grind? Let go, friend. Focus your energy on making a positive contribution to the industry. It’ll be far more cathartic.
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[Edited under Mumbrella’s community moderation guidelines]? I’m having trouble remembering 🙂
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Andrew (not really Andrew), you certainly seem like you’ve been wronged in this move. Re-hashing the same commentary in as many trade titles as you can isn’t really going to help mate. Perhaps you can write an opinion piece for Mumbrella or other so your issue can be heard properly and perhaps use your real name so it can be addressed with you or you can get the support you are looking for.
Otherwise – I agree with @Andrew – move on mate. Focus on yourself and your own career.
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I don’t remember her being a brilliant thinker at Sensis ?
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