Dentsu’s Doug Rozen to depart amid Americas reorganisation

Doug Rozen, head of Dentsu’s media division in the Americas, is leaving the company as it undergoes a substantial reorganization in the region that carves out the media and creative performance businesses of its agency brands.

Rozen has overseen Dentsu’s media agencies in the Americas for more than two-and-a-half years, having formerly worked his way up 360i—one of three creative agencies that was merged under Dentsu Creative last year.

Dentsu told Campaign US Rozen will depart “by the end of the week.” It said it already has a search underway to replace his role as Media CEO of Americas.

In a statement, Dentsu said: “We are grateful for his contributions to our business and specifically, our portfolio of media brands, which represent some of the best-in-class capabilities, scale and talent in the industry. We wish Doug great success in the future.” 

Rozen’s departure comes amid the latest reorganization at Dentsu, which has undergone significant upheaval in the past few years as it seeks to simplify its structure.

Dentsu said approximately 1,000 employees across the Americas are being reassigned. It said it is not cutting staff as part of the restructure.

The reshuffle includes folding Merkle's media business into IProspect, which also swallowed up Vizeum in 2021. 

Liz Rutgersson, a long-time Merkle executive who has been the agency’s chief media officer for two-and-a-half years, has been appointed to CEO of the newly bolstered IProspect in North America.

Previous IProspect CEO Danielle Gonzales is now chief growth officer of Dentsu Americas, where she will focus on building new client relationships and delivering cross-brand, integrated marketing solutions for clients.

Dentsu’s other media agencies in the U.S. are Carat, the largest, and Dentsu X.

Meanwhile, the performance creative businesses within Dentsu’s media agencies are now moving under Dentsu Creative. 

The practice will be co-led by Amy Thorne, formerly Merkle’s business lead of B2C performance and B2B brand creative, and Octavio Maron, head of creative and content and ECD at Dentsu International.

Finally, Dentsu is combining analytics capabilities from its customer experience management (CXM), creative and media agencies under Merkle’s analytics practice. Merkle’s global head of analytics and data platforms, Shirli Zelcer, will lead the group. 

Dentsu Americas CEO Michael Komasinski said in a press release the restructure “will accelerate our speed to market and further cement Dentsu as a leader in marketing innovation, customer transformation and technology.”