Dentsu Media hires new chief operating officer

Dentsu has hired Kedma Pognon Brown as its chief operating officer for its Americas media service line, consisting of Carat, iProspect, and Dentsu X powered by 360i. In this newly created role, Brown will be tasked with modernizing and increasing the efficiency of Dentsu Media's operations including the way its employees work together. Last year Dentsu went through a restructuring which consolidated its global agency brands from 160 to six. A part of this change was Dentsu Media went from having 11 agencies under its belt to four. “Having 11 different groups and P&Ls created complexity, from hiring somebody to creating a scope of work to resourcing,” Doug Rozen, CEO of Dentsu Media Americas told Ad Age. “We were not able to move at the speed that we wanted to move and how our clients expect us to move. Kedma’s get-it-done mentality and track record of solving huge global operational challenges of scale within various types of agencies is really going to allow us to drive that efficiency and reduce the complexity.” In her 25-year career, Brown has held numerous positions across a variety of disciplines, including advertising, marketing, business operations, project management, media, and technology. She joins the holding company from Publicis Groupe, where she spent the last decade holding various senior positions within the network, the most recent being the senior VP of business operations, project management, and production for MRY. Before Publicis, Brown held positions at Cheil North America's The Barbarian Group, and TBWA/Chiat/Agency.com. Part of Brown’s role is to look at Dentsu Media holistically from a client, organization, and business perspective to figure out, along with the rest of the leadership team, which areas could benefit from the implementation of automation technology. “People think that technology and automation will eventually replace people and that's actually not the case,” Brown told Ad Age. “We can actually use it for the good of our clients and talent to streamline a lot of the mundane activities that take a lot of time, but don't necessarily provide, strategic value. Automation can mean anything from building a simple bot that allows you to track time to building a workflow platform that allows information and processes to flow seamlessly.” Earlier this month the agency brought on Kai Deveraux Lawson as senior VP, diversity, equity and inclusion for the network’s creative service line in the Americas, which includes agencies such as 360i, Dentsumcgarrybowen, Firstborn, and Isobar.

Dentsu Media hires new chief operating officer

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