Dentsu X names Daniel Isaac as CEO as DAN rebuild continues
Dentsu X Australia, the Dentsu Aegis Network’s (DAN) media agency, has named Daniel Isaac as CEO.
It’s the latest shake-up in the DAN leadership ranks as CEO Henry Tajer attempts to rebuild the network, including with yesterday’s appointment of Angela Tangas as Dentsu X’s chief commercial officer.
Isaac joins from United, where he has served as managing director of Omnicom’s offering for Nissan and Renault since 2017.
Isaac will join Dentsu X in October
“Daniel is an integrated thinker, and widely regarded for his entrepreneurial, creative and collaborative mindset,” said DAN’s ANZ CEO, Henry Tajer.
“We are looking forward to him joining the group and leading the Dentsu X team and clients through this exciting time.”
Isaac said it’s a “pivotal” time to join Dentsu X and DAN, and that part of his role will be to reset expectations.
“I’m delighted to be joining the team at dentsu X at such a pivotal time for the brand and the group,” he said.
“There’s so much opportunity to do even more great work with current clients, and I’m excited to help reset expectations of what we can deliver to our future client partners as well.”
Sam Hegg, Dentsu X Australia’s current national managing director, will leave the agency to join DAN’s newly created offering, Dentsu Solutions as executive director of strategy.
Isaac’s appointment is the latest in a series of hires and fires as Tajer restructures the holding group.
In May, a few months into Henry 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.
Amplifi’s head of programmatic Luke Manley was made redundant last week, following Michael Bass’ appointment as Amplifi’s chief investment officer two weeks ago, who stepped into the role following Ashley Earnshaw becoming CEO of DAN media agency Vizeum.
Carat managing director Simon Williams also departed two weeks ago. 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.
And yesterday, Tangas became Dentsu X’s chief commercial officer.
DAN media agencies, including Dentsu X, have faced a tumultuous time. Last month, Dentsu X lost the Australia Post account to Wavemaker.
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.
DAN’s Asia Pacific operations have also seen a number of senior-level exits last month.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
Linkedin
Congratulations Daniel.
User ID not verified.
Well done Henry a great hire
User ID not verified.
So Henry is doing a repeat of his US strategy (for IPG). Hiring his mates!
No disrespect to his Mates as all good hires but….
User ID not verified.
Not allot of clients in Dentsu x to get his teeth into right now.
User ID not verified.
Here’s a thought… A quick scan of Henry’s LinkedIn shows time at WPP, Omnicom, IPG and Amazon and time in Australia, APAC and globally… so he’s probably worked with a lot of people from a lot of places… and is picking the best talent from along the way.
User ID not verified.
If he is hiring his mates (as you put it), but they are all good hires (as you also put it), what’s the issue? Seems like a sensible approach to appoint strong and trustworthy talent.
User ID not verified.
I guess this pony is gelded.
User ID not verified.