Stagwell Taps dentsu Veteran Rutgersson as Assembly Global CEO

Stagwell appointed Liz Rutgersson CEO of Assembly with a global and North America remit effective September 14, 2026. The same announcement elevated Connie Chan to CEO of Assembly APAC, effective immediately; Chan keeps her role as Chief Growth Officer of Stagwell APAC. Rutgersson spent 16 years at dentsu, the last three as CEO of iProspect North America, and has more than 20 years spanning brand strategy, digital media, analytics and search, with brands including Hilton, eBay, Salesforce, Ferrero, Dollar General and Tesco. She reports to Slavi Samardzija and succeeds Rick Acampora, who earlier moved to a holding-company role developing new commercial frameworks; Jill Kelly will support the transition. No factual dispute; outlets differ only in emphasis. Samardzija said Liz and Connie are "exceptional leaders with a proven track record of driving growth for advertisers, building high-performing teams and helping clients succeed in a rapidly changing media ecosystem" and that the appointments reinforce a "more modern, agile agency." Rutgersson said the best agencies "help define what comes next" and will build "with their performance as the clearest measure of our own success and client growth as our organizing principle." Chan told Branding in Asia that Assembly is "entering an exciting new chapter of growth" with talent, footprint and capabilities across media, commerce, data and technology. Stagwell recently launched The Media Machine and Stagwell Search+, opened a Singapore APAC headquarters, integrated Assembly with ADK GLOBAL, and received Drum Marketing Awards APAC 2026 honors for work from China, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore.