Dentsu Hires Jacki Kelley Away From Bloomberg as U.S. Chief Client Officer

Kelley had been in her prior role since December 2017, when she was promoted from COO of Bloomberg’s media division. She was previously CEO of North America and president of global clients for IPG Mediabrands before leaving to join Bloomberg in September 2014 and was global CEO of UM Worldwide before that.

Before IPG, Kelley was vice president of worldwide strategy and solutions for Yahoo after spending 18 years at USA Today.

“It is an exciting time to return to an agency network as I see the disruption as a significant opportunity to differentiate with integrated solutions for clients,” Kelley said in a statement. “Dentsu was the most compelling opportunity based on exceptional capability across all disciplines, a culture of collaboration, a structure to deliver integrated solutions at scale and an appetite to invest for the future.”

Kelley reports to Dentsu Americas CEO Nick Brien and joins the holding company’s executive team and global senior leadership forum. Her appointment rounds out Brien’s U.S. executive team that includes chairman of the Americas David Williams, Americas chief growth officer Hap Brakeley, U.S. chief strategy officer Dirk Herbert and Americas chief people officer Libby Barden. Dentsu said it also furthers Brien’s “strategy to innovate the way brands are built via a simplified client experience across the [company’s] portfolio.”

In her role, Kelley will help “define unique partnerships” with platforms and media owners and advise the group’s long-term acquisition strategy, according to Dentsu. She will be responsible for coordinating and operationalizing integrated brand solutions for all key clients across the holding company’s agencies including mcgarrybowen, Carat, iProspect, 360i, Isobar and Merkle.

“Jacki Kelley is a proven senior marketing executive with recognized leadership expertise and deep operational skills,” Brien said in a statement. “Her diversified range of career experiences across the media, marketing and agency sectors is equally unusual and extremely valuable. Jacki’s role in our industry, both as a visionary and game-changer, makes her ideal for the role.”

Kelley also serves on the board of Comic Relief USA, a nonprofit dedicated to ending child poverty in America. She’s received the United Way of New York City’s Power of Women to Make a Difference Award, was a Matrix Award honoree by New York Women in Communications, Advertising Woman of the Year by the Advertising Women of New York, a New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award honoree and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement (to name just a few other accomplishments).

Her hire completes Brien’s U.S. executive team and comes as he continues to restructure Dentsu’s agencies into four “service lines”: Creative and Content, led by Pat Lafferty as president of mcgarrybowen U.S.; Media (Brand and Performance), headed up by chairman of Dentsu Media U.S. Doug Ray; Customer Experience and Commerce, led by Isobar CEO Deb Boyda; and CRM and Loyalty, headed up by Craig Dempster, president of Merkle Americas.