Accenture Song reveals new leadership team for local business

Accenture Song’s Bronwyn van de Merwe and Matt Michael will replace Mark Green assuming the ANZ business lead and Droga5 chief executive role, respectively.

Accenture Song Australia and New Zealand's new management team of Accenture Song Lead Bronwyn Van Der Merwe and Droga5 CEO Matt Michael. Picture: Jane Dempster

Accenture Song has appointed Bronwyn van de Merwe to replace Mark Green and lead the business across Australia and New Zealand, with The Monkey’s Matt Michael to become chief executive of Droga5.

The two internal appointments replace Mark Green, who held both roles prior to relocating to New York to assume the global chief executive role at Droga5.

Ms Van der Merwe, who currently leads Accenture Song’s Service practice and previously established and led design agency Fjord across ANZ, Singapore and Japan, will assume responsibility for the integrated offering across. She will work closely with Mr Michael, who is currently leading Accenture Song’s Marketing practice and has served as managing director of The Monkeys for 10 years, who will lead the Droga5 rebrand.

The two leads take the helm as the business undergoes significant changes with the imminent relaunch of Droga5, the launch of its much anticipated media business and the integration of Song’s recent acquisitions such as The Lumery and Fiftyfive5. The leaders will seek to build out more profile for the services beyond the marketing practice, which are increasingly attracting more clients.

The focus will be on the new leadership to stamp their marks on the business that has been dominated by Mr Green’s reputation and personality.

Accenture Song global chief executive David Droga said the new leadership team demonstrated the breadth of experience within the business as it seeks to build on recent success, including the $19 billion global revenues announced in its recent FY24 results.

“Bringing Mark over (to New York) is great for the company, the global team and great for Mark, as he deserves to have a bigger canvas and platform. But also part of the decision making is knowing just how deep the talent resources are in ANZ and having Matt and Bronwyn in those roles, is a win, win, win,” said Mr Droga.

David Droga, the global CEO of Accenture Song. Picture: Nigel Barker

“The mandate for them is bigger. One of the heavy burdens of massive success is greater expectations. We have dialed up the expectations and appetite to serve our clients more and even better now with two leaders that can take that on.

“Yes, they’ve got shoes to fill, but their job isn’t to follow his footsteps. Yes, there’s the same sort of the purity of culture and output and belief, that 100 per cent has to stay the same, but the mandates and asks from our clients are even broader.”

“Everyone always wants to compare us against the hold cos, but maybe a quarter of what we do can be compared to what they do. The marketing practice is a very important part but it’s just one of the levers that have to be integrated across the offering.

“That’s why I love the fact that Bronwyn comes from a design background. I want product people in charge at the top because product people think about the output and the actual product that we make,” said Mr Droga.

The new leadership will work to showcase the different services within the Accenture Song offering including its new Accenture.AI service and build the profiles of the design, experiences and data teams within the business.

Ms Van der Merwe said, “I think all organisations, our clients included, are having to do more with less, finding new ways to find that customer relevance and drive growth. We’ll be helping our clients with that challenge, but I really think that we’ve got a lot of the ingredients here, incredible capabilities, incredible talent, and with the launch of Droga5, new and incredible brands, and it’s really about how we stitch that all together and come together as new leadership team to chart the next era.”

Mr Michael said the first priority was the Droga5 launch. “Launching Droga5 in ANZ is such an exciting opportunity, and off the back of such a strong run for The Monkeys, where we’re at the height of our powers, it’s just the right time to do it, and something that’s just so exciting for me and for the team.

“We’re challenging ourselves to do better work and move ourselves forward. We’ve always had a mentality that the best work is ahead of you, not behind you. And that’s what we’re looking at.”

Mr Droga paid tribute to The Monkeys brand praising the legacy of great work, which includes the Cannes Lion winning Sydney Opera House Play It Safe campaign pictured above,

“It’s a privilege for The Monkeys to want to step into and be excited about taking on the Droga5 brand, because we realise the reputation that The Monkeys has in the market and what it’s done to deserve that. It’s not something we’ve taken lightly. We see the value of Droga5 globally and what it means not just for the creative audience, but for clients. But by no means does that mean we just took it for granted that The Monkeys would just want to change. It is a spectacular brand, and what it’s achieved in the market is unbelievable.”

Ms van der Meuwe also paid tribute to her predecessor. “There are definitely very large shoes to fill. But, Matt and I have been working together for a long time and with my background in design and experiences and Matt’s background in brand, I think we’re really well placed to continue Mark’s legacy.”

Mr Michael added, “Personally, I’m just very thankful to finally get rid of Mark Green.”