CtrlShift's CEO Dominic Powers joins Dentsu Aegis Network

CtrlShift's CEO Dominic Powers has joined Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) as head of business growth, solutions Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, he will report into Ashish Bhasin, CEO, DAN APAC and Yusuke Kasahara, CEO, solutions APAC. Powers will be tasked with driving organic revenue growth for clients by identifying innovative solutions to maximise growth opportunities across media, creative and CRM. He will oversee the Asia Pacific region’s new business strategy and opportunities within DAN’s existing client base, working with regional teams to grow C-suite relationships as well as the Solutions unit to deliver business value to clients through integrated thinking, strategies and products.

Prior to this, Powers was with CtrlShift for more than three years, first joining as chief business officer before being promoted to CEO, according to his LinkedIn. He also worked at Epsilon for 14 years and DoubleClick International for more than three years. Powers said that industries worldwide have seen more disruption and transformation in the past six months than they have in years. "Brands need an agency that can guide them through the changing consumer landscape, maintaining their relevance while identifying the next growth opportunity," he said.

According to him, DAN is in "the strongest position of any group" to unlock the potential of a scaled, end-to-end solution for clients. "I am looking forward to working with our teams across the APAC network to identify these challenges and deliver growth for our business and importantly, that of our clients too," he said.

Kasahara added that marketing transformation is central to DAN's proposition. "While we are built in a way that enables integration across multiple capabilities, Powers's role will be paramount in making sure the way we organize ourselves benefits our clients while bringing new brands through the door. Powers's reputation and experience speaks for itself and I’m delighted to welcome him to the team and further operationalise our business around the needs of our clients," he added.

Meanwhile, Marketing understands from sources that CtrlShift is still hunting for a potential buyer for its business. Marketing has reached out to CtrlShift's co-founder and CEO Reza Behnam for comment. In May this year, The Studio, a programmatic advertising and marketing solutions company previously owned by CtrlShift and now majority owned by Taiwan-based marketing solutions firm adGeek Group, folded operations across all markets it operated in - Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

In 2019, adGeek acquired a majority stake of The Studio from CtrlShift and assumed full management control. The acquisition resulted in both adGeek and CtrlShift combining resources and expertise to meet the demands of clients across Asia Pacific. Both companies also worked collaboratively to support clients’ software and managed service needs. Founder and CEO of adGeek Group, Frank Chen, told Marketing previously that The Studio was impacted by the decrease in spending by its major clients in 2019. Since then, the market had unfortunately seen massive disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few months, "prompting a significant drop in ad spend and marketing operations from our clients".

Join us on a three-week journey at Digital Marketing Asia 2020 as we delve into the realm of digital transformation, data and analytics, and mobile and eCommerce from 10 to 26 November. Sign up here!