Larry Weber and Atsushi Mizushima join Macromill Group board, as former CEO and board director Han de Groot steps down.
Tokyo, Japan – 6 December 2016. Macromill Group has announced that its board has elected Larry Weber and Atsushi Mizushima to the board as non-executive directors effective from November 29, 2016. Mr. Weber is Chairman and CEO of Racepoint Global. Mr. Mizushima is a Partner of law firm Nishimura & Asahi.
Scott Ernst, Macromill Group Representative Executive Officer and Global CEO, said: “We are delighted that Larry and Atsushi have joined the Macromill Group board of directors. Both are true global business executives and their insights and deep experience, particularly in digital and corporate governance, will make a significant contribution to help Macromill Group reach its next phase of growth.”
Larry Weber is Chairman & CEO of Racepoint Global. Mr. Weber is a globally recognized authority in public relations and marketing services. He is also the author of five books on marketing, technology and leadership. He started his own public relations company, The Weber Group, in 1987. Within a decade it became the world’s largest public relations firm. The Interpublic Group of Companies purchased The Weber Group in late 1996. In 2000, Mr. Weber was named Chairman and CEO of Interpublic’s Advanced Marketing Services, a $3 billion unit with 12,000 people. In early 2006, he founded Racepoint Global.
Atsushi Mizushima is a partner of Nishimura & Asahi, the largest law firm in Japan. He supports major global companies as well as start-ups in designing execution plans for strategic initiatives including M&A transactions, business alliances, globalization and financing. After 7 years of practicing as an M&A and corporate lawyer at Nishimura & Asahi, Mr. Mizushima attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned an MBA. While at Stanford, Mr. Mizushima founded WHILL, Inc. (a startup company in the hi-tech hardware business in Silicon Valley). He made a remarkable contribution to the company’s business management and financing. Later, he stepped down as an advisor to the company and went back to Nishimura & Asahi as a partner. Mr. Mizushima is also a lecturer of Seikei University, School of Law.
Mr. Ernst continues: “Larry and Atsushi will be great assets to our board and shareholders. Leaders in their respective fields, they each bring unique knowledge and experience to our business. They will provide us with valuable new insight from which we can learn. We couldn’t think of a better way to ensure we continually enhance our performance as we aspire to become the first truly global digital research company.”
Macromill Group also announced a fond farewell to two directors of the board, Han de Groot and Atsushi Yokoyama.
Han de Groot, who founded MetrixLab in 1999, has retired from the board of directors. Following MetrixLab’s merger with Macromill in 2014, he was appointed as Global CEO of Macromill. Since he stepped down as CEO last year, he continued to support the business as a director of the board. Mr. De Groot added: “The company is in great shape under the strong leadership of my successor CEO Scott Ernst and has ambitious plans for the future. I’m confident Larry and Atsushi will support Macromill Group in achieving its global objectives.”
Atsushi Yokoyama has stepped down from the board of directors. He is a Managing Director of Macromill’s largest shareholder, Bain Capital Inc. Asia. He provided significant support and guidance to the management team with a special focus on financial analysis and strategy.
Mr. Ernst said: “We are deeply appreciative of Han’s leadership and significant contribution to the organization over the last 17 years. I know I speak on behalf of all colleagues in thanking Han for his extraordinary service to our company and in wishing him the very best in his future endeavors.” Mr. Ernst added: “We’d also like to thank Yokoyama-san for his invaluable contribution to our business over the past two years.”
About MACROMILL (www.macromill.com)
Macromill Group is a rapidly-growing global market research and digital marketing solutions provider. We bring together the collective power of our specialist companies to provide innovative data and insights that drive clients’ smarter decisions. Our industry-leading digital research solutions deliver rapid and cost-effective solutions to the challenges businesses face today. We are headquartered in Tokyo and Rotterdam with over 30 offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Macromill serves more than 3800 brands and agencies in more than 90 countries with over 1700 experts worldwide.
Macromill Group includes: Macromill Japan, Dentsu Macromill Insight, M-Cube, M-Promo, Macromill Carenet, Macromill Embrain, MetrixLab, Oxyme and Precision Sample.
