Dentsu EMEA announces client-centric realignment to drive competitiveness

DACH and CEE markets to form a single Central Europe cluster led by Sławomir Stępniewski; Karin Zimmermann appointed as new BX President to oversee the expansion of business transformation (BX) EMEA.

Dentsu EMEA announces a new client-centric realignment to support the region’s continued drive for sustainable growth and competitiveness. Under the direction of André Andrade, CEO, dentsu EMEA, the shift sees the formation of the DACH and CEE clusters to a single Central Europe cluster, and the appointment of Sławomir Stępniewski to CEO dentsu Central Europe & Poland. The current CEO of DACH, Karin Zimmermann, will take on the new role of BX President, while continuing to grow her key clients.

EMEA Chief Executive, André Andrade said: “We are realigning our EMEA business to ensure we are strategically positioned to scale, as well as better serve our clients’ through a more integrated model that will provide simpler access to our cross-practice capabilities and talent. The expansion of BX in EMEA is a significant development in our current marketplace offering and will provide our clients with a true growth and transformation partner beyond your traditional advertising agency. A huge congratulations Sławomir and Karin on their new roles – their collective expertise across Media, Creative, CXM and customer-centric business transformation offers an exciting new proposition and growth accelerator for our region.”

Stępniewski is a seasoned industry leader with over 30 years’ experience having established one of the first Polish interactive agencies, Hypermedia, in 1996. For nearly five years, Stępniewski has been leading the Central Eastern European cluster, comprising eight markets including Poland. During his tenure, the cluster has achieved remarkable growth, in the face of a challenging geopolitical time for the region. In 2022, dentsu Poland was appointed the Advertising Group of the Year by the editors of Media & Marketing Polska, and Stępniewski himself has been the recipient of a number of industry awards, including the ICAN Institute’s ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ in 2021.

Stępniewski, CEO dentsu Central Europe & Poland, said: “The new Central Europe cluster is a strategic step forward, enabling us to better meet client needs and drive growth across the region. Transparency, collaboration, and accountability will be the foundation of our success, allowing us to operate as a unified team—regardless of geography, brand, or area of expertise. Bringing together the strengths of both clusters gives us the opportunity to leverage the best of each. We combine the scale and CXM expertise of the DACH region, which are critical for client development, with the energy, adaptability, and ‘can-do attitude’ that define CEE. This unique blend allows us to focus not only on being client-centric but also on supporting the well-being and growth of our people, creating a space where they can thrive and achieve their goals. Harmonizing our operating model and strengthening cross-border collaboration will provide immense value—not only for our clients but also for our people and dentsu as a whole. I believe that together, we can uncover new opportunities, deliver tangible results, and build a future grounded in trust, talent development, and positive energy. This is more than just integration — it’s an invitation to co-create our shared success.”

Zimmermann brings more than 20 years of experience in brand management, consulting, and customer-centric business transformation to her new role. Karin will build dentsu EMEA’s regional BX community of practitioners who will define cross-capabilities and solutions centred around solving our clients’ biggest strategic challenges of tomorrow, true to dentsu’s promise of innovation to impact.

BX is a key investment priority for Dentsu globally, and Zimmermann’s rich experience places her best to lead this effort in EMEA. Zimmermann has successfully launched the first BX team outside of dentsu Japan and built a high performing Integrated Solutions offering into the fastest moving capability in DACH. Under her leadership, DACH has grown into an integrated cluster and shown strong customer-centricity and high satisfaction results.

Stepniewski and Zimmermann have initiated a close collaboration between their two clusters throughout 2024, as a true symbol of one Dentsu, one EMEA. These new appointments are the culmination of growing the two clusters fully together under Stepniewski’s leadership and perfectly leveraging Zimmermann’s trusted and demonstrated client and BX skills.

Zimmermann, BX President EMEA, said: “Through BX, dentsu is a true end-to-end business partner for our clients, solving their business challenges. It is my passion to take BX beyond DACH to the next level, leveraging our Japanese expertise and innovation in this space. Serving our clients with our integrated, one dentsu approach delivers innovative strategies with a tangible business impact. I will partner with our key clients to delight them with our offering and our talents, to ensure their competitive growth advantage and cost resilience.”

The changes will be effective from 1 January 2025.

About dentsu
Dentsu is an integrated growth and transformation partner to the world’s leading organizations. Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, and now present in over 145 countries and regions, it has a proven track record of nurturing and developing innovations, combining the talents of its global network of leadership brands to develop impactful and integrated growth solutions for clients. Dentsu delivers end-to-end experience transformation (EX) by integrating its services across Media, CXM and Creative, while its business transformation (BX) mindset pushes the boundaries of transformation and sustainable growth for brands, people and society