Paul Brooks has been named as the new CEO of one of Australia’s biggest media agencies Carat.
Brooks: “we need an absolute focus on client service”
The Englishman is promoted to the role vacated by Simon Ryan in February when he was elevated to be CEO parent group Dentsu Aegis Network Australia and New Zealand following the sudden departure of Luke Littlefield.
Brooks was the favourite internal candidate for the role, having been head of investment for Carat for a year and for the last 18 months president of Dentsu Aegis’ media investment arm Amplifi.
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Ryan said in a statement: “I’m extremely pleased to announce the leadership succession of Carat to Paul Brooks as the agency’s new CEO. Paul is a valued member of the group and this promotion is a natural progression for him.
“It recognises his consistent high performance and exceptional leadership abilities, traits I trust will see him steer Carat to new heights of success. It’s also gratifying to promote from within the network as testament to our depth and breadth of talent.”
Brooks joined Carat from Mediacom three years ago, where he had been head of trading for the CroupM agency for two and a half years. He started his career with sister WPP agency Mindshare, spending 12 years in its London office.
Paul Brooks with Dentsu Aegis CEO Simon Ryan
He said: “I am proud and genuinely excited at the opportunity to re-join the Carat team as its new leader, tasked with setting the future vision of the agency.
“I am passionate about the Carat vision and committed to delivering on our guiding purpose – to create better business value for our clients.
“Our role as their trusted partners is to help them navigate this unprecedented period of change, driven in large by the well-documented digital disruption taking place in our industry. My ambition for Carat is clear: we need an absolute focus on client service to ensure we’re doing a better job than anyone else in market of steering our clients through this complex landscape.”
The announcement comes as Dentsu Japan fights to stave off a scandal after admitting overcharging 111 clients by a total of $3m on its digital inventory, a crisis which is likely to have widespread ramifications for client/agency relationships globally. There is no suggestion Dentsu Aegis Network agencies in Australia have been overcharging clients.
In the last two years Carat has been elevated in the Dentsu Aegis network pecking order, with many prestigious clients transferred to the agency following the retirement of Harold Mitchell.
The agency employs more than 450 people in six offices across Australia and NZ, and has clients including Woolworths, Holden, David Jones, Mondelez, Schweppes, Medibank and Mastercard.
Brooks takes on the role from Tuesday, October 4, with a new head of Amplifi to be named in due course.