Former DAN CEO Simon Ryan leaves Carsales
Simon Ryan, the former CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, is stepping down from his role as managing director of commercial with Carsales after just over 12 months in the role.
Ryan’s departure comes as the business embarks on changes to the organisational structure of the Carsales business, including the promotion of Ajay Bhatia to managing director – Australia and the creation of a new executive leadership role.
Ryan has left Carsales, effective immediately
Ryan was the ANZ CEO of Dentsu for over two years, a role he stepped into after six years as CEO of Carat. When he left the business he said he was keen to explore life outside of the agency bubble. It isn’t yet clear what his next role will be.
“[I] wanted to thank Cameron [McIntyre, Carsales CEO] for the great opportunity, I enjoyed the challenge and my time in the business and I wish Cameron and the business all the very best for the future.”
Bhatia has been with Carsales for over 11 years, eight of those as the chief information and product officer and the last three as managing director of the consumer business. The new role of managing director – Australia will see Bhatia take on all of Carsales’ Australian operations, including consumer, dealer, media and OEM.
Mumbrella understands there will be no other changes to the leadership team and that Ryan’s departure is effective immediately.
Cameron McIntyre, CEO and managing director of Carsales said: “I’m delighted to see Ajay receive this opportunity to continue to step up and build on his outstanding capability. Ajay has been a significant part of the Carsales growth story and this new role is a natural evolution in his journey. I’m very confident Ajay has the experience, dedication and capability to oversee the ongoing development and growth of our Australian business.”
A new role has also been created for a chief product and information officer, leading the Carsales group’s product, technology, data and program functions. A global talent search has begun for the right candidate.
“As the company continues to build its domestic and international capability it has become increasingly important that we have strong alignment between product and technology. This new role brings these core parts of the company together while recognising and elevating the fundamental role data plays in the company’s success and future growth,” said McIntyre.
McIntyre thanked Ryan for his contribution.
“We thank Simon for the great contribution he’s made to our media business since joining earlier this year and wish him well with his future endeavours.”
Really sad to see him leave the business, he’s been great for us.
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Best of luck mate. Hopefully we bump into each other [edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
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To acknowledge that media / agency ‘business’ execs just aren’t cut for the actual business managing roles.
Just don’t have quality for it.
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Who actually thinks he resigned? C’mon now
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[Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
Cheers,
Noddy
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Classic chirp
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Good call – agency execs live in a never evolving, Peter Pan style fantasy land and arent equipped with the basic business skills to survive outside the industry bubble.
So many who have tried to make the jump into the commercial landscape wind up right back as Agency Directors / Group Sales Managers a few months later.
Yes, you are right – its a thing.
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Even though he was only in the job for 10 months he certainly had an impact.
I’ll miss him referring to himself in meetings as [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
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Huge impact – revenue down 10m for the year.
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Never heard of him.
But I’ll get a price rise in January, sure as day follows night.
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