Deric Wong leaves OMG Hong Kong CEO post to lead Dentsu in China

Deric Wong is leaving his post as CEO of Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Hong Kong to join Dentsu China as CEO.

Wong has been with OMG for 13 years and was promoted to the group CEO role in 2018, from his prior post as Hong Kong CEO of OMG agency OMD, which he took up in 2016. He is no stranger to the China market, having held a strategy role covering both China and Hong Kong from 2014 through 2016. Wong appeared in Campaign Asia-Pacific's 40 Under 40 list in both 2019 and 2013.

Wong will be the third China CEO in just over two years at Dentsu. Current China CEO Michelle Lau is leaving the business to be closer to her family in Hong Kong, the company said. She will remain in the role, which she has held since taking over in March 2019 from Susana Tsui, who held the post for just a year, until the end of March.

Wong will report to Cheuk Chiang, CEO of Dentsu Asia Pacific's Greater North region.

"Deric is a brilliant strategist and visionary leader who has a strong track-record of unlocking transformative growth for clients through delivering progres-sive integrated solutions," Chiang said in a release. "He genuinely cares about building great talent [and] driving integration, and this, coupled with a future-focused mindset, equips him well to lead Dentsu China into a new era of growth."

Wong will be responsible for continuing Dentsu's transformation program, which includes driving integration, strengthening its go-to-market capabilities and building "a culture of inspiration and radical collaboration", the company said.

Wong said he's delighted and honoured to lead Dentsu China, which has "a long legacy of leading transformation and driving innovation".

Regarding Lau, Chiang said, "2020 was a challenging year for everyone, and Covid-19 has made many of us reflect on personal priorities. For Michelle, I know the constant commute and quarantine was not easy. I respect her decision to leave Shanghai and return home to Hong Kong to be closer to her family. We have been in discussions for a few months and our priority has been to find a strong successor who can build on her legacy. I would like to take the opportunity to thank her and celebrate what she has brought to the business—setting a clear strategy, navigating the team through a pandemic, building transformative client-centric capabilities, returning the business to growth and driv-ing new business momentum’’.

Lau said she is proud of everything the company has have achieved in the past two years. "I am supremely confident that in Deric Wong, we have identified the best candidate to drive our business forward," she said.

Tony Harradine, CEO of OMG APAC, said of Wong, "We’re grateful to Deric for his contributions to OMG Hong Kong over the last 13 years. During his tenure, he has established OMG Hong Kong as a formidable network and we wish him all the best in his next chapter."