Julien Courant to head DGM Southeast Asia as Hawkins departs for Dentsu

WPP digital media veteran Courant joins DGM from Neo Ogilvy.

Hawkins departure was announced end-November 2010; he had been with the company eight years.

The leadership revamp followed the sale of DGM’s Australian business by parent company Asia Digital Holdings (ADH).

Adrian Moss, founder and CEO of ADH, relocated to Shanghai to directly oversee DGM’s recently launched Greater China operation, while keeping his group responsibilities.

A company statement said that the sale of DGM’s Australian operation at the end of October 2010 “strengthened the group’s balance sheet, and cleared the way for execution of an exciting Asian expansion strategy.”

In Asia, DMG has clients in the travel, e-commerce, and banking sectors such as HSBC, ANZ, Citibank, Emirates, Dell, British Airways and Air France/ KLM.

“Success in performance advertising demands multiple capabilities that are truly scarce in the region,” commented Moss. “Julien is a senior digital marketer with a blue-chip pedigree and deep expertise across strategy, project management, performance media, and analytics, so our business prospects in Southeast Asia are in excellent hands.”