Dentsu Aegis global business operations chief exits after less than a year

Volker Doberanzke, a former UBS banker who joined Dentsu Aegis Network in February as global president of business operations, has left the company.

Doberanzke, who was based at the London office, had not worked in the creative and media industries when he took the newly created role. However, at the time he said that there are similarities in the banking sector with its focus on digital transformation and "big data".

At Dentsu Aegis, Doberanzke was responsible for business operations across its 145 markets in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. 

Doberanzke was group head of operational excellence at UBS for six years. Before that, he was on the board of fintech company Leonteq in Zurich for three years.

Dentsu Aegis has issued an internal note on Doberanzke's departure.

This week, Dentsu Aegis announced that there will be hundreds of job losses at the UK operations as part of a major restructuring across the UK, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany and Singapore in 2020 as the company looks to "future-proof" the business.

Doberanzke's exit follows a string of high-profile departures from the business this year. These include Gyro chair Kate Howe, who is joining MSQ Partners in February; Dentsu global creative chief executive Dick van Motman, who is departing at the end of the year; and iProspect global president Ruth Stubbs is joining Wavemaker as EMEA chief executive in early 2020.