Yamaguchi, who spent 28 years at Dentsu, will fill the newly-created role of chief executive. Hoon Kim will remain at the agency as MD.
Simon Sherwood, chief operating officer of BBH Group, said: “When we launched BBH Japan, we set out to primarily serve multinational clients, such as Nippon Lever and Diageo. We hired Kat, a well-respected Japanese player, because we want to further penetrate the Japanese market.”
At Dentsu, Yamaguchi managed the agency’s subsidiary agencies in Europe and the Americas as deputy director of the international management division. He developed alliances with Publicis Groupe, Dentsu’s major overseas partner, oversaw mergers and acquisitions and client support.
Sherwood, who met Yamaguchi a year ago through the Publicis connection (BBH is minority-owned by Publicis), added: “Although he has spent his entire career in Japan, he has a highly-developed understanding of the global marketplace. He understands that we don’t want to be another Western agency trying to make it in Japan — we want to be BBH Japan.”
During his career, Yamaguchi has worked with clients such as McDonald’s, United Airlines, BMW, Coca-Cola and GlaxoSmithKline. He will work out his notice at Dentsu before starting work at BBH Japan next month.
