MUMBAI: His is a familiar face with the entire media and entertainment industry in India. More so in the broadcast sector, Singapore-based Rob Gilby – who is well-known for his fancy moves on the dance floor as he is for building organisations in Asia – will be joining Dentsu International as its APAC CEO come 5 September 2022. He will report to Dentsu International global CEO Wendy Clark.
Rob has been mandated with overseeing the 11,600-strong Dentsu army of ad folks in 18 markets. He is stepping into the agency at a time when it has rolled out Dentsu Creative worldwide following accolades like it being awarded as the APAC regional network of the year and Dentsu Creative India being recognised as the global agency of the year at the recently concluded Cannes Lions. The agency has also been showing some fancy results with growths of 4.7 per cent in FY’21 and 5.2 per cent in Q1 2022.
“Rob is an exceptionally well-rounded leader with a progressive approach that deeply understands the future of the industry and opportunities for growth, for our people, our clients and our business,” said Dentsu International CEO Wendy Clark. “Importantly, he demonstrated his long-term vision, values-based leadership style and passion for building high-performance, diverse teams that is fundamental to the way we do business at dentsu.”
He has great credentials indeed with 30 years’ experience in the media and entertainment industry and has worked in Asia Pacific for over 25 years. He has a proven track-record of growing profitable businesses including WarnerMedia and The Walt Disney Co, with extensive experience in markets including Australia, China, India, Southeast Asia and Singapore.
He joins dentsu from Nielsen where he is President, APAC responsible for building relationships with key media owners, brands and agencies to deliver audience insights across the media ecosystem. Prior to that he was CEO & founder, Blue Hat Ventures, an investment and advisory firm focussed on identifying and commercialising high-growth businesses in the digital media sector in Asia Pacific. He has held non-executive board and advisory roles at the ministry of communications & Information, the InfoComm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Media Festival.
Robert said, “I was instantly drawn to dentsu’s compelling vision with its rich heritage as the only holding company born out of Asia. It is a privilege to be leading this region with the world looking to the Asia Pacific region as its GDP growth is forecasted to remain strong, the emerging middle-class booms and rapid digitization and investment in homegrown platforms leapfrog existing technologies. Dentsu’s ability to understand people better than anyone else and vision for horizontal creativity coupled with these market conditions creates an exciting opportunity for brands to thrive.”
