Dentsu International has appointed Doug Ray as global chief product officer, Media. In this new role, Ray will be responsible for the vision and delivery of the Media product roadmap for the Dentsu scaled service offering and its media agencies: Carat, iProspect and Dentsu X.
He will also continue in his current role as chief product officer, Dentsu Americas.
As global chief product officer, Ray will remain based in the US and be accountable for integrated global products with an increased focused on commercialisation around the world. Ray will now sit on the global media leadership team and dual report to Peter Huijboom, Global CEO Media and Jeff Greenspoon, president – Solutions, Americas.
Ray takes the new position with immediate effect.
Huijboom, said on this appointment: “Doug’s impressive expertise and knowledge of our business strategically positions him to harness the full potential of all the Dentsu CXM, media and creative products and capabilities for our clients through their preferred media agency of record, regardless of geography or brief.”
Ray has been with Dentsu for over 17 years and has previously been named its Americas CEO of media, as well as its first president of Product and Innovation, during which time he led the growth of the product suite, including the integration of the Merkle M1 platform into the business. Before that, he was CEO of Carat US where he led the media agency’s transformational growth as the company more than doubled its revenue.
Ray also served as first Global President for Carat from 2013 to 2015.
“With the changes we’ve seen in media over the past several years, it is more important now than ever before to prioritise our product agenda," said Ray. "Clients are seeking solutions that often do not exist. And they want flexibility in how they engage those solutions, either through an agency relationship or directly.'
Ray takes the new position with immediate effect.