Dentsu Group Inc. has appointed Takeshi Sano as Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & Global CEO, effective March 27, 2026. He has continued to serve as CEO of dentsu Japan alongside his global role.
The company has outlined a renewed management structure under Sano’s leadership, with a focus on reducing layers and placing global leadership directly under the Global CEO to improve responsiveness and clarity in decision-making.
Dentsu has prioritised strengthening execution and accelerating transformation as part of its global strategy. The company has aimed to enhance its competitiveness and profitability, particularly in overseas markets, while maintaining growth momentum in Japan.
The organisation has also focused on leveraging AI, data, and technology to evolve its role as a growth partner for clients, covering strategy, execution, and measurable outcomes. It has emphasised client-centricity, agility, and integrated collaboration across capabilities as key operational priorities.
Additionally, Dentsu has worked towards building stronger alignment between its Japan and international businesses to drive synergy and support long-term growth across markets.
Takeshi Sano, President & Global CEO, dentsu said, “The environment surrounding business, technology and society continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace putting dentsu at the forefront to consistently confront these shifts and define solutions to create the future that lies beyond it. Since our founding in 1901, dentsu has leveraged the power to move people’s hearts as its starting point, addressing the challenges faced by businesses and society, and creating new value and vitality for ourselves and our clients along the way.
Driven by creativity, insight, and a deep understanding of people, we will continue to work alongside our clients and partners to create momentum for people and society, drive meaningful change, and enhance dentsu’s corporate value. Under our global brand proposition, Innovating to Impact*, dentsu integrates creativity, media, data, and technology to support our clients’ business growth while generating lasting impact for society.”
“The world is undergoing change at a speed never seen before—driven by rapid technological innovation such as generative AI, increasingly diverse values, and global-scale challenges all driven by a dynamic and changing economic environment. In such a complex and uncertain era, what is required of companies and society is not only vision or ideas, but the ability to execute. Those that stand out will have the capability to reliably translate ideas into tangible outcomes which create economic value and generate long-term value for society. We firmly believe that compassion for others, combined with a strong commitment to execution, is essential to building a better future.”
“By fully leveraging the power of AI, data, and technology, we will further evolve our role as a growth partner for our clients—taking end-to-end responsibility from strategy development and operational execution to delivering measurable impact across society, and comprehensively contributing to the sustainable growth of our clients.”
“To achieve this, our foremost priorities are to strengthen execution and accelerate transformation. To that end, we have renewed our global management structure by reducing layers of management and placing much of our global leadership directly under the Global CEO. This allows us to gain greater clarity and faster responsiveness to the pace of business and our industry.”
“Dentsu’s overseas businesses is one of our key management priorities. We will swiftly rebuild our management foundations, aiming for an early recovery of competitiveness and profitability. At the same time, our Japan business will maintain and strengthen its growth momentum, while expanding its strengths more broadly across the global organization.”
“Under this new management structure, client-centricity is our new mantra. In particular, we will further advance two key strengths. First is agility—anticipating client needs and leading with speed and flexibility. Second is deep and advanced collaboration across capabilities—bringing together and orchestrating dentsu’s diverse expertise to ensure true integration is a differentiating multiplier, and delivering fully integrated solutions.”
“Through these initiatives, we will support our clients’ business growth while also making more tangible and meaningful contributions to solving societal challenges.
The creativity, insight, technology, and deep understanding of people, cultivated in Japan, together with the long-standing trust built through extensive collaboration with our clients and partners, are a significant source of competitive advantage for dentsu. Building on these strengths, we will drive transformation across our business and our culture to generate greater synergy between our Japan and overseas businesses. In turn this will strengthen our global network in which diverse dentsu talent can thrive across borders and areas of expertise.”
“I am committed to transforming our environment so that both management and every individual employee can advance these changes with the highest level of integrity. I commit to standing at the forefront of this change, dedicating my full efforts to ensuring that dentsu continues to grow sustainably alongside society.
Together with our clients and partners, dentsu talent around the world, and stakeholders across society, dentsu will continue to embrace challenge, turn change into strength, and evolve as a true growth partner—driving ongoing transformation and innovation.”
