What you need to know:

• Danny Bass is expected to be announced as Dentsu Media CEO – senior Dentsu execs were informed of the appointment last week.
• The holdco is also on the hunt for a Dentsu Group CEO to replace Angela Tangas, who leaves to run the UK and Ireland operation. 
• Under Tangas' watch, media industry execs says Denstu has become less of a dominant media player as the company switches to more of a consulting-styled company, resourcing up on commerce, tech, data, CX and creative services. 

Retreat, regroup

The recently exited ANZ head at Snap, Danny Bass, is expected to be announced in coming weeks as Dentsu Media’s new group CEO, replacing the outgoing Sue Squillace.

Dentsu and Bass would not comment but top execs at Dentsu ANZ are understood to have been informed last week of the appointment.

At the time of his departure from Snap ANZ last month, Bass told Mi3 he was headed back to manage the 75-acre "Berry Farm" retreat and events property on Sydney’s Hawkesbury River, which he co-owns but has been wiped out twice in the past year by flood events. 

But it seems his Snap exit and full-time return to the Hawkesbury might have been cover for the Dentsu Media gig after current CEO Sue Squillace announced her exit two weeks ago. 

Bass will fill at least one senior executive at Dentsu, another being the Group CEO role being vacated by Angela Tangas, who is also leaving to run the UK and Ireland operation for Dentsu.

It’s been a revolving door of sorts at Dentsu for at least three years with mixed signals from inside on the company’s direction – historically it has been a media-skewed business, primarily because of the acquisition of Harold Mitchell’s Mitchell & Partners more than a decade ago for upwards of $200m.

Under former bosses, Simon Ryan and Henry Tajer and the departing Tangas, the business has been attempting to diversify, invest and resource up in data, tech, CX, commerce and creative prowess. But market observers say it’s been at the expense of media, a business Tangas has less enthusiasm for, media industry execs suggested.

Instead, her efforts have been focused on building a consulting-styled firm with tech and creative as the focus although revenue expectations from media are said to remain ambitious from Denstu’s global management.

Outside of Tangas and Bass, Dentsu is also hunting for a new boss at Carat, which has the market rumbling about former UM CEO Fiona Johnston as a possible candidate – she left UM Australia for a UK-based job with Mediabrands before the role was wound-up recently.