EVP, Client Leadership

dentsu•Chicago, IL

7d•$206,000 - $300,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The EVP, Client Leadership will serve as the senior relationship and business lead for a large home improvement retailer, one of dentsu creative's most important retail partnerships, while overseeing a broader portfolio of business. This executive will be the face of the agency with senior client leadership and the internal leader accountable for strategic direction, operational excellence, team performance, organic growth, and the continued evolution of the partnership. This role calls for a proven agency leader who can thrive in a fast-moving retail environment, build trusted C-suite relationships, and connect brand, promotional, seasonal, and culture-led marketing into a cohesive business agenda. With strong operational leadership already in place, the EVP will focus primarily on elevating the relationship, shaping the future vision, and introducing forward-looking opportunities across innovation, AI, and modern marketing practices. This role reports to the US Chief Client Officer. Talent for this opportunity can be located in Chicago, IL or Charlotte, NC

Requirements

15+ years of progressive leadership experience in an agency, marketing, or similarly complex client-services environment, including significant senior client leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated success leading large, complex accounts and multi-disciplinary teams at the EVP, SVP, or comparable level.
Deep retail marketing experience, ideally supporting a major national retailer in a high-volume, fast-paced promotional environment.
A proven record of building C-suite relationships, increasing executive influence, and creating organic growth through strong strategic partnership.
Experience overseeing a significant account P&L with fluency in forecasting, scope, staffing, margin, and investment decisions.
Strong integrated marketing acumen across creative, media, strategy, production, commerce, content, digital, social, television, out-of-home, and omnichannel experiences.
Working knowledge of AI, emerging technology, and modern marketing tools, with the judgment to identify practical use cases and guide responsible adoption.
Ability to lead through complexity and change while remaining hands-on, decisive, and highly engaged with clients and teams.
Exceptional executive communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.

Responsibilities

Own the senior agency relationship with a large home improvement retailer and cultivate trusted, influential partnerships across C-suite and executive client stakeholders.
Serve as the senior strategic advisor on the client's business, retail landscape, competitive dynamics, consumer behavior, and evolving marketing priorities.
Lead consequential client conversations, business reviews, and senior-level presentations with clarity, confidence, and a proactive point of view.
Anticipate client needs, navigate leadership and organizational change, and strengthen dentsu creative's position as an indispensable business partner.
Provide executive oversight for a double-digit portfolio, with accountability for revenue, profitability, forecasting, scope, and sustainable account health.
Identify and convert organic growth opportunities across the client relationship and broader client portfolio.
Partner with agency leadership on new business and adjacent growth opportunities where relevant.
Balance client ambition with commercial discipline, ensuring the team delivers against business commitments while protecting the quality and value of the work.
Connect brand marketing, high-volume promotional retail work, seasonal campaigns, retail-driven sales programming, and culture-led partnerships into a unified client agenda.
Collaborate across creative, strategy, media, production, project management, finance, and other integrated partners to deliver effective, modern marketing solutions.
Champion creative ambition while ensuring the work is grounded in the client's business goals, customer needs, brand strategy, and retail calendar.
Can connect brand platform work to retail activation across paid media, owned channels, stores, e-commerce, CRM, social, partnerships and measurement - without treating those channels as separate programs.
Bring a strong understanding of the broader marketing ecosystem beyond creative, including media, commerce, content, data, technology, and channel dynamics.
Proactively identify opportunities to modernize the client's marketing capabilities, operating model, tools, and ways of working.
Bring practical knowledge of AI and its application across marketing, content, insights, operations, and client solutions; translate emerging capabilities into responsible, business-relevant opportunities.
Create a forward-looking innovation agenda that moves the partnership from reactive account management to proactive thought leadership.
Partner with subject-matter experts to frame, test, and scale new ideas while maintaining appropriate governance, brand stewardship, and client trust.
Lead, coach, and develop approximately six direct or closely aligned account team members, in partnership with established SVP-level leadership.
Create clarity across roles, decision-making, expectations, and ways of working in a highly matrixed, cross-disciplinary environment.
Build an inclusive, high-performing culture that values accountability, collaboration, candid feedback, and strong talent development.
Operate as an enterprise-minded agency leader who contributes to dentsu creative's culture, commercial priorities, and broader transformation agenda.