Dentsu China Appoints Two CGOs to Boost Innovation & Growth

Dentsu China announces the appointment of Alex Tan to the role of Chief Growth Officer (CGO), Media, and Richard Wu, as Chief Growth Officer (CGO), Merkle. Both CGOs will work cross-functionally to identify new pathways for growth, align dentsu China’s offerings and approach to market - while enhancing the business’ pace of technology to optimally support dentsu’s value proposition for client needs and expectations.

Alex is a media veteran with over 27-years of experience in advertising and media agencies in Asia. Prior to joining dentsu China, Alex has served in various leadership roles at Starcom, MediaCom, OMD and IPG Mediabrands, working with iconic brands including General Motors, Volkswagen Group, American Express, General Mills, Mars China, and Pepsi Foods. Since joining dentsu, Alex has demonstrated momentum with notable pitch successes including a strengthened commercial media operation.

In his new role, Alex will set the growth strategy and establish growth practice such as new business development and integration for dentsu’s media portfolio which includes Carat, dentsu X and iProspect, to achieve stronger business results. He will bring implementation of new approaches to operations, capabilities, and technologies by working with dentsu’s broader creative and customer experience capabilities to provide clients with what they need for the future, through seamless integration across the end-to-end user experience for a sustainable future. 

Richard brings over 25-years of experience across healthcare, automotive, IT, management consulting and high-tech industries. His focusses have been on business development, talent development and team management, M&A financing, client relationship management, enterprise strategic planning, and integrated solution generation and delivery.

Before joining Merkle, Richard led new business and market development at Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group Company. He managed CP group’s entire digital transformation and incubated a new frontier digital commerce program - evaluating and maintaining a strong partnership with leading/emerging tech start-ups in AI, IoT, cloud, and blockchain. He also advised CP group subsidiaries in retail, farming, healthcare, and real estate to improve business performances. Richard also held management consulting roles at Accenture, IBM, HP and Oracle.

Richard will play a key role at Merkle accelerating speed-to-market and sustainable revenue growth. He will manage, establish, and align the operations of digital transformation across CX consulting, Martech & MA, CRM & loyalty, data science and management, as well as B2B services. Richard reports to Hawk Liu, Merkle China CEO.

Deric Wong, CEO, dentsu China commented, "I am excited to have both Alex and Richard appointed as Chief Growth Officers at a pivotal point in our growth, executing business strategy to lead our business through operational excellence.  They will both continue to build on our shared success with our clients and enhance dentsu China’s position to meet new business outcomes, through our world-class services and integrated solutions."

"Alex is a strategic business partner and change leader. With his past experience from multiple agency networks, I am confident that Alex will help dentsu solidify our role as a leader in media services sector, shape our best practices and solutions in strategy, brand media, performance, data and technology, and help our clients achieve sustainable growth in the dynamic marketplace." Deric added.

Kevin Mann, Chief Growth Officer, dentsu China commented, "Strong leadership and integrated strategic vision are critical to accelerating the growth and transformation of our business. I believe both CGOs are exceptionally well-placed to help drive the next stage of our connected growth journey. Their expertise in business innovation, service excellence and strategic growth planning will help enhance our client solution and solve new complex business challenges in today's ecosystem-driven marketplace."

“I’m thrilled to take on this exciting new role to capture the next phase of growth for dentsu’s media business.” Alex Tan, Chief Growth Officer, Media, dentsu China said, “Media is vital to delivering our clients’ strategic imperatives, and many of the fast currents that drive growth in China’s complex ecosystem happen in media. At dentsu, our competitive advantage is multiplied by the seamless use of technology and agile teaming with the talent across dentsu creative and customer experience teams. This media-led open teaming solidifies our role as a leader in the media services sector to meet the rising need for integrated solutions and to help our clients achieve accelerated growth.” 

Hawk Liu, CEO, Merkle China said, "Richard has keen and unique insights on market trends, with a broad, diverse set of experience to anticipate and manage change in a marketplace. I believe Richard will help solve complex enterprise-scale experience challenges with technology and data. He will also contribute to the denstu’s integrated growth solutions. I look forward to his development plan in the China market."

Richard expressed enthusiasm about his new role, “I am excited to take on this key role at Merkle. There is a tremendous opportunity for CXM business, with the increasing demand for digital transformation and customer-centric solutions in today’s environment. Merkle China’s rich experience in CXM practice has laid the foundation for business development for the future, and I look forward to help bring Merkle to the next stage of its journey.”