Dentsu Aegis strengthens top table with appointment of Mother co-founder Stef Calcraft
Dentsu Aegis Network has picked Mother advertising group co-founder Stef Calcraft to serve as its executive chairman for the UK and Ireland with effect from January 2018.
Dentsu Aegis Network has picked Mother Advertising Group founder Stef Calcraft
Calcraft’s arrival heralds another step in Dentsu’s drive to become a fully digital business by 2020 with a renewed focus on data, creativity and content. Reporting directly to chief executive Giulio Malegori Calcraft will be tasked with mobilizing talent across creativity, media, digital, data and content to leverage further growth.
Jerry Buhlmann, chief executive, Dentsu Aegis Network, commented: “Stef will lead the business into the next period of growth in the context of a transforming digital economy. His exceptional and unique track record of building globally recognised entrepreneurial businesses in our industry sets him apart as the outstanding candidate.”
Calcraft added: “We are entering a uniquely exciting new age for brands where value creation through direct audience building will only be limited by our collective imagination, inventiveness and intimacy with the world around us. Those that lean forward will thrive like never before.”
The UK is Dentsu’s third largest market globally, employing 4,500 people serving 800 clients drawn from 23 media, technology, data and creative agencies. Calcraft retired from Mother in 2012.
The move comes just weeks after the group lost its UK chief executive in Tracy De Groose, who after three years at the company left, without announcing the next step of her career.