Dentsu Creative MY's CEO Kunal Roy steps down

Dentsu Creative Malaysia's chief executive officer, Kunal Roy (pictured), has stepped down from the role after close to three years, as confirmed to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE by Roy. 

"There are two reasons – one, I felt my job at Dentsu was done – transforming the various creative agencies into one powerful creative brand in the market as Dentsu Creative. Secondly, on a personal level, I need to take a break after working flat-out for 10 years," said Roy in a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

Crediting his successes to the team, Roy said that the biggest achivement over the years was that the team created a vibrant creative culture and thus became a force to reckon with in the creative industry.

Some additional milestones to be proud of are the marque business wins such as Petronas, Telekom Malaysia, Cetaphil & Estee Lauder and launching Dentsu Entertainment, he said. 

"I leave Dentsu Malaysia with pride that we grew Dentsu Creative into something unafraid, unmistakable and unapologetic and that we set it up for growth in fame and fortune. Things can only get better from here, hopefully," said Roy. 

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In his role in Dentsu Creatives, Roy led the transformation of a team of specialists across business, strategy, creative, production, social, influencer and web by bringing five companies together in vision, purpose, culture, product and operations to build one creative company. In tandem, Roy was also a council member at 4As. 

Dentsu Creative was officially formed in June 2022, uniting 9,000 employees with its team of 37,000 Media and CXM experts working across the businesses globally.

When Dentsu Creative was first launched, the agency said that the brand was crafted as an expression of East meets West, taking inspiration from Japanese culture, design, fashion and technology. Four traditional Japanese cultural icons are used to represent Dentsu Creative’s values. They are Kitsune Fox, Ryujin Dragon, Orizuru Crane, and Kohaku Koi.

Prior to his stint at Dentsu Creatives, Roy was the CEO of dentsu International, creative brands, a role he held for just under three years. There, he led the transformation of creative brands such as Dentsu LHS, Dentsu One, Isobar and Content Symphony as one integrated creative service line at Dentsu Malaysia.

Before joining dentsu International, Roy was with Publicis Groupe as its chief strategy officer, a role he held for just under three years. 

He has also held leadership roles in agencies such as Cheil India, Saatchi & Saatchi X and Ogilvy & Mather. 

Roy told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that he will now be taking a break. "I am in casual discussions within the industry for roles in APAC and beyond and am also considering a stint outside of the industry. But first, I will spend time with my family, relax and travel a bit," he said. 

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