Dentsu Queensland has capitalised on a year of momentum culturally and commercially, assembling a powerhouse lineup of talent to lead its Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) partnership.
dentsu was named as the successful agency group in November following a competitive tender process, capping off a wonderful year for the agency, which included client wins, double-digit revenue growth and award-winning work.
Chris Ernst, managing director of dentsu Queensland, said: “2022 was a fantastic year for the dentsu Queensland team. It was the biproduct of two years of hard work from every person in our organisation and I could not be prouder of the growth that it’s created for our people, our partners, and our agency.
“Our focus in 2023 is on consolidating that growth and further evolving the uncompromising approach to what we do. We are thrilled to be welcoming an incredible group of new people into our team who share that same mindset, while unlocking exciting opportunities for others who have committed so much to our business in the past few years.”
The TEQ team has been assembled over an eight-week period ahead of the partnership launch on the 1st of March including all associated backfills, a huge feat in what is an extremely competitive resource market.
Peter Clark joins from Macquarie Bank and formerly UM & MediaCom Sydney bringing with him 18+ years of experience across agency and marketing side. Clark will lead the dentsu QueenslandTourism and Events Queensland team as the integrated client director.
Emilia Ball joins from Pedestrian Group having spent six years building the Pedestrian brands in Queensland, SA and WA in her role as national head of sales development & partnerships. Ball joins as the strategic partnerships director and will lead Industry Partnerships and the IMATE proposition, strategically connecting the Queensland tourism ecosystem.
Monique Gerada will be joining dentsu Queensland from Nova Entertainment in Melbourne where she has been an ACRA finalist and Media I salesperson of the year (2021) with prior time spent agency side at Cummings&Partners as the Client Director for the IMATE Industry portfolio.
Internally, Josh Fick has been promoted to client director leading the strategic brand of tourism and events Queensland and Josh Iselin takes on a key digital leadership role as digital director leading a team of specialist digital practitioners and the integration point with the CxM dentsu capability of Merkle.
Both have had long tenures with dentsu Queensland at four and a half years and six years, respectively.
Harleen Sodhi has been promoted to digital manager, Ha Nguyen has been promoted biddable manager, and Leisl Lillicrap and Maddie Grieve will step into new opportunities in the integrated dentsu Queensland TEQ team.
In connection to the internal moves, Ryan Roberts has been promoted to digital director on another key client portfolio within the business.
The dentsu Queensland team has also capitalised on the cross-border mobility available within its global network with Angie Hsu joining as an operations director relocating from dentsu Shanghai and Dannielle Tischljar relocating from Sydney iProspect after taking part in the inaugural dentsu basecamp intake in 2022.
Emily Cook, head of client partnerships who ran the recruitment process said: “We are so proud of what we have built here at dentsu Queensland, it is quite special. Sharing our story and our uncompromising spirit while recruiting for this team has been an absolute career highlight for me.
“The calibre of talent joining the dentsu Queensland team is unrivalled. For me, the opportunity to personally see the growth over the last 18 months of our own talent and be able to recognise and reward these wonderful people with promotions and new growth opportunities is incredibly special. I also love our mix of interstate and overseas talent joining us knowing that the Queensland is where it is at!”
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Top image: Peter Clark and Emilia Ball