Executive leadership changes continue at Carat this year, with the Dentsu Aegis Network media agency once again promoting from within.
Carat promoted Angela Steele, formerly chief strategy officer, to the position of U.S. CEO. Effective Jan. 1, she will assume leadership of all U.S. operations and management.
Steele will serve as the successor to Adweek Media Executive of the Year Michael Epstein in the role, following Epstein’s promotion to global CEO in June. She will report to both Epstein and Doug Ray, Dentsu Aegis Network chairman of U.S. media, working closely with both executive leaders.
“When I was asked to serve as global CEO this spring, we deliberately built a process and timeline for replacing me as CEO of the U.S. But from the start, Angela was the natural choice,” Epstein told Adweek. “Then as we thought through what we needed and who might best fit the criteria, it became crystal clear.”
Steele has served as CSO for Carat since 2017 and was instrumental in evolving the agency’s product portfolio, including the integration of Dentsu Aegis Network’s M1 data platform. She joined Carat as head of global product on the General Motors account in 2015. Prior to joining the agency, she served as CEO for IPG’s full-service mobile agency Ansible.
“We are fortunate to be in a position where the agency has had a very good few years, and Angela has been such a huge part of that success, which gives us such continuity with clients and our people. At this moment, that is really important for us,” Epstein explained, adding that Steele “helped us shape the story of where M1 fits in the portfolio of products and offerings, what role it plays, and what approaches can maximize its capabilities.”
“The things that excited me about Carat several years ago when I took the CSO role are still the things that excite me today,” Steele said in a statement. “We have a differentiated capability to combine the best talent with the best data and insight to deliver real human understanding to our clients. As CEO, I look forward to continuing to make Carat the most valuable partner for our clients and the most rewarding place for our people.”
The appointment bookends a successful year for Carat in terms of new business, which began with P&G consolidating a larger portion of its media account with Carat while also taking some work in-house. Carat led both the U.S. and global categories in COMvergence’s media agency new business ranking for the first half of 2019. In updated report shared with Adweek, Carat still came out on top through Q3, with $5.25 billion in net global new business revenue and over $1.9 billion in North America, according to COMvergence.
