Michael Atkins Appointed As Executive Director For Dentsu Y&R

Yoichi Inose, President & CEO of Dentsu Young & Rubicam Inc. today announced the appointment of Michael Atkins as the new Executive Director for Dentsu Y&R in Japan.  

Based in Tokyo, Atkins is tasked with ensuring the continued growth and development of the Dentsu Y&R business in the Japanese market. 

Much of Atkins’ career has been in the advertising and commercial sector, having successfully run his own independent creative marketing services agency for over 17 years, winning awards including a One Show Digital.  He then moved on to be COO of agency group Innocean, establishing the marketing services arm of the Hyundai Kia Automotive group in Australia. Most recently, Atkins was CCO at French multinational Veolia Environnement.

A fluent Japanese speaker, Atkins was previously based in Japan for four years when he established and ran the TNT Express business.  He subsequently covered 46 countries throughout 6 regions for TNT Express in a marketing and commercial development role whilst based at their global head office in the UK.  

Commenting on the appointment, Yoichi Inose, President & CEO of Dentsu Young & Rubicam Inc. said, “We welcome Michael back to Japan as the new Executive Director of Dentsu Y&R, a unique joint-venture of two leading global communications groups, Dentsu and Young & Rubicam. Working as long-term partners, our cross-cultural pedigree of our strength in Japan, along with the agility and depth of the global Y&R network, allows Dentsu Y&R  to provide innovative solutions to our clients and their brands, both in Japan and globally. Michael’s extensive experience, both agency and client-side make him the ideal choice for Dentsu Y&R in Japan, as we continue to strive to be our clients’ most important partner.”

Added Matthew Godfrey, President Y&R Asia, “Founded in 1981, Dentsu Y&R is one of the region’s oldest and most successful partnerships; a groundbreaking venture 33 years ago, one of the many firsts for which Y&R is well-known – leading to us being dubbed the world’s oldest start-up. We thank Bob Kerwin for his successful leadership of Dentsu Y&R in Japan and welcome Michael to the helm for the next phase of the agency’s development.”