DDB EMEA's Roisin Rooney to Chair EACA's International Agencies' Council

Roisin Rooney, Chief People Officer for the majority owned DDB Group offices in EMEA has been elected chair of the International Agencies’ Council of EACA, the European Association of Communications’ Agencies, replacing Anthony Gibson, President of the Publicis Group of companies in Portugal.

According to EACA Director General Dominic Lyle, the issue of talent retention and development has moved rapidly up the agency agenda in recent years and Rooney’s expertise in this area, helping DDB to implement a strategic shift in how they think about the value of human capital and people as part of a growth agenda, will help the Association to create relevant strategies for the benefit of its members across Europe.

“I am honoured and excited to take over the International Agencies’ Council chair from Anthony Gibson, said Rooney. “The EACA is an invaluable partner to all agency networks in the work they do with the EU institutions to ensure freedom to advertise responsibly and creatively. 

“I am looking forward to working with Dominic and his team to explore how we can collectively institute continued learning and educational practices that demonstrate professional standards region-wide.  In an ever-evolving and fluid industry landscape, we must be able to attract the best talent if we are to be competitive. To do this we have clearly to demonstrate why creative advertising and communications is one of the best industries to be a part of.”

Prior to becoming Chief People Officer EMEA, Rooney was a founding member of the People Performance Group (PPG), formerly DDB University, which was created in 2000. She was responsible for leading the global learning and development function called Catalyst, designing, delivering and evaluating an annual curriculum of globally applicable blended learning solutions. Rooney has also been a member of the Omnicom EDU Advisory Board, a team of practitioners charged with creating best in class global training and development solutions for the 1,200 companies and 65,000 employees of Omnicom.