Chief Strategy Officer

Agency : Ledger Bennett Job Description

We are seeking a transformational Chief Strategy Officer to shape the future of our agency and our clients' brands. As a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, the CSO will define and drive the agency's strategic vision, elevate our brand and creative strategy capabilities, and build a world-class global strategy function that powers sustainable growth across markets. This is not a traditional planning leadership role. We are looking for a strategist who can connect business ambition, brand purpose, customer insight, creativity, data, technology and culture to create competitive advantage for both our clients and our agency. They will work with other strategy lead across Havas agencies to create joint propositions that give us unique offerings for clients globally. The successful candidate will be responsible for establishing and scaling strategic hubs across global markets, creating integrated centres of excellence that deliver consistent strategic thinking while enabling local relevance and market expertise. They will champion the next generation of B2B marketing, ensuring our agency stays ahead of shifts in buyer behaviour, AI-enabled marketing, creativity, channel innovation and brand building. This role will be instrumental in elevating our reputation as one of the world's most strategically influential B2B agencies.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the agency's long-term strategic vision in partnership with the CEO and Executive Leadership Team.
• Shape the agency's market positioning, service evolution along with the CEO and other agency leaders to ensure continued relevance and differentiation.
• Identify emerging opportunities, industry trends and market shifts that can unlock competitive advantage.
• Act as a strategic catalyst across the business, driving innovation and future-focused thinking.

• Build a world-class strategic planning function renowned for excellence in B2B brand building and creative effectiveness.
• Lead the development of transformative brand, communications and customer experience strategies for key global clients.
• Ensure strategy serves as the foundation for outstanding creativity and measurable business impact.
• Champion the integration of brand, demand generation, customer engagement and reputation-building approaches.
• Establish best-in-class strategic frameworks, methodologies and planning tools across the agency (and international hubs).

• Design and implement a global strategic operating model that supports agency growth across regions and markets.
• Establish and scale strategy hubs and centres of excellence across priority global markets.
• Create consistent standards, processes and capabilities while allowing for cultural and regional nuance.
• Foster collaboration across geographic teams to create a connected and high-performing global strategy community.
• Identify opportunities for market expansion, acquisitions, partnerships and capability building.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to C-suite client stakeholders and senior decision makers.
• Lead strategic engagements with key global accounts and participate in major business reviews.
• Support new business growth through compelling strategic thinking, positioning and pitch leadership.
• Translate complex business challenges into actionable opportunities for clients and agency teams.
• Strengthen long-term client relationships through strategic value creation.

• Lead the agency's approach to AI, data-driven planning, customer intelligence and predictive marketing.
• Ensure strategic thinking evolves alongside technological change and emerging customer expectations.
• Create a future-focused culture that embraces experimentation and continuous learning.
• Establish partnerships with industry experts, research organisations and innovation networks.

• Build, inspire and develop a diverse, high-performing global strategy team.
• Create clear career pathways and a culture of strategic excellence.
• Mentor senior strategists and emerging leaders across the organisation with the added challenge of being located in different markets/time zones.
• Foster strong collaboration between strategy, creative, client services, media, social, digital and analytics teams.
• Raise the overall strategic capability and commercial acumen of the agency.

Experience

• 15+ years of strategic leadership experience within a leading agency, consultancy, marketing services business or marketing dept in a global brand.
• Significant experience leading brand, communications and creative strategy at a regional or global level.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling high-performing strategy teams.
• Experience developing international operations, markets, hubs or centres of excellence.
• Strong track record of driving agency growth, client retention and new business success.
• Deep understanding of B2B marketing and the evolving relationship between brand building and commercial performance.
• Full funnel B2B marketing experience.

Key Outcomes

• Within 12-24 months, the Chief Strategy Officer will have: Established a globally connected strategy organisation with clearly defined market hubs and centres of excellence.
• Elevated the agency's reputation as a strategic leader in global B2B marketing.
• Supported the delivery of 20-25% agency revenue growth through strategic leadership of key accounts, proposition development and new business activity.
• Ensured strategy function directly contributes to at least 50% of all new business wins.
• Built market-leading brand and creative strategy capabilities.
• Embedded innovative, AI-enabled and insight-driven planning practices throughout the agency.
• Created a high-performing strategy, and globally scalable strategy team capable of supporting sustained international growth.
• Designed and launched a global strategy operating model within the first six months.
• Established new regional strategy hubs across key markets.
• Implemented standardised strategic frameworks, planning tools and processes across 100% of agency locations and achieved adoption by all strategy teams within year one.
• Increased multi-market strategic project delivery by 30%.
• Ensured every major global client has access to integrated hub expertise.
• Developed and implemented a strategy quality framework.
• Reduced strategy development cycle times by 20% through improved processes and AI-enabled tools.

Contract Type : Permanent

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination.

We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.

About Us

Founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups, with more than 23,000 people in over 100 countries sharing one single mission: to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses, and people.

Havas has developed a fully integrated model covering all communications activities. The teams of the three business units, Creative, Media and Health & You, work together with agility and in perfect synergy to offer clients tailor-made, meaningful, innovative and entertainment-oriented solutions that support them in their positive transformation.

Life at Havas

We take great pride in our Havas family. They bring many unique personalities, perspectives and passions to their work. Collaboration is at the core of how we operate, and Havas Villages are the homes we work in. We encourage our people to take advantage of our many opportunities to learn and grow. Through local agency training sessions, our unique global and development programs, we offer our people endless opportunities to explore.

Havas Media Network

We create the best media experience, capitalizing on the most meaningful media to build more meaningful brands. We know how to connect a client with their target audience – in the context of where they are, through the content they pay attention to. We deliver this expertise through the Mx System, our global operating methodology and strategic planning process, that creates value for our clients by turning consumer intelligence into clear growth targets, aligning stakeholders and KPIs, and measuring the impact of media experiences.

Havas Creative Network

At Havas, we believe creativity isn’t just a description of our business, it is part of our agencies’ DNA. We bring together some of the industry’s most creative and accomplished agencies. By combining creative expertise with the strategic and innovative power of our Villages, we can build seamless teams around the individual needs of each of our clients.

Havas Health

Driven by human purpose and focused on the betterment of humanity through health, Havas Health & You leverages a global collection of experts and individuals to help people everywhere live healthier lives. With a spirit rooted in innovation, creativity, and education, we are dedicated to delivering consistent excellence and groundbreaking work.