Dentsu Appoints Yusuke Kagohara as Southeast Asia CFO

Dentsu has appointed Yusuke Kagohara as Chief Financial Officer for Southeast Asia, reporting directly to regional CEO Sanjay Bhasin. The move is designed to strengthen financial discipline and governance across the agency's six-market Southeast Asia cluster.

Appointment Details and Scope

Kagohara's mandate covers Dentsu's Southeast Asia operations spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The cluster employs over 4,000 people focused on client growth and business transformation.

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Kagohara brings 18 years of Dentsu network experience to the role. He most recently served as Group Head of Risks and Controls at Dentsu Group Inc., leading global internal controls and enterprise risk management. Before that, he held CFO and Deputy CFO positions at Dentsu Beijing and Dentsu Creative China.

Bhasin framed the appointment around accountability rather than expansion alone. "Growth alone is not enough. It has to be growth that is accountable, resilient, and built to last," he said.

Kagohara added: "My journey with dentsu has shown me how different markets evolve and what it takes to sustain growth through that change."

Part of a Broader Financial Leadership Structure

The appointment fits into a layered financial governance structure Dentsu has built across Asia Pacific. Stephan Matthiesen joined as CFO APAC in February 2025, sitting above the cluster level. Shigeki Endo was confirmed as Global CFO in the same month, with a stated focus on strengthening Dentsu's financial foundation and achieving sustainable cash generation.

Kagohara's SEA CFO appointment fills the sub-regional layer within this structure. A dedicated Finance Controller for Southeast Asia also sits within the cluster, overseeing balance sheet management and compliance across all six markets.

This financial governance build-out runs alongside a broader leadership renewal at Dentsu. Yuichi Toyoda became CEO of Dentsu APAC on January 1, 2026. Takeshi Sano was appointed President and Global CEO effective March 27, 2026.

Simultaneous Creative and Financial Investment in the Region

The CFO appointment is not an isolated move. In parallel, Dentsu Creative Indonesia announced its own leadership restructure. Lucky Handoko returned as General Manager, while Defri Dwipaputra and Rangga Immanuel were elevated to dual Chief Creative and Experience Officer positions.

Bhasin described those appointments as underscoring "our belief in the strength of local leadership to drive growth at home while shaping regional and global relevance."

The dual investment in creative and financial leadership reflects Dentsu's approach to building operational depth across Southeast Asia simultaneously on both fronts.

Commercial Scale Driving Governance Needs

Dentsu's commercial footprint in Southeast Asia has grown significantly in complexity. Its customer experience arm, Dentsu Merkle, now operates with over 300 specialists across Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam. The unit holds partnerships with Google and Salesforce, and was named Campaign Asia's Data Analytics Agency of the Year 2023 for Southeast Asia.

Managing financial operations across six regulatory environments, multiple currencies, and a growing portfolio of technology-enabled services requires dedicated governance infrastructure at the cluster level. Kagohara's appointment directly addresses that operational need.

Kagohara described Southeast Asia as a region with "both scale and complexity" and "a strong sense of ambition," adding that he sees it as "a convergence of diversity, speed, and endless possibilities."