John Bessey has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 July 2020. John joined Davanti in June 2019 in the role of Chief Client Officer.

Davanti Founder, Justin Hamilton, says, “We are delighted to appoint John to the role of CEO.

“This is a transition that founders Matt Farrar, Robert Carter and I planned more than three years ago, and we are immensely excited to welcome John to the position.

“John brings a real energy, strategic insight and a mature professionalism to Davanti. His leadership style and passion for our business, alongside his strategic vision for the future and his strong customer focus in all things is very much in keeping with Davanti’s DNA.

“This is a very exciting time for the business. 12 months ago we brought John into the role of Chief Client Officer, with the specific intent to appoint him CEO, and he has patiently learned what makes Davanti special, how the Salesforce world works and has sought to understand why we are successful without jumping to any conclusions.”

Rob Harvey, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network New Zealand, says, “I’m thrilled to have John stepping up into the CEO position. It’s great to have such strong talent in the business and a clearly mapped succession plan.

“Davanti has been a fantastic addition to our group and I’m really excited about the future of the business under John’s leadership. It’s also a good time to acknowledge the outstanding job that Justin has done as CEO since founding the business with Rob and Matt, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him on key strategic and commercial projects.”

John Bessey says, “I’m delighted to be taking on the CEO role at Davanti. We have a great team who all really enjoy doing great work with our clients. At our heart, we’re really obsessed with how we can deliver both the leadership and ways of working required for transformation as well as the real depth in digital capability which enables Australian and New Zealand enterprises to get closer to their customers.”

As CEO, John will be accountable for Davanti’s leadership and performance, working alongside the Davanti executive to enable Davanti’s people to do their best work for their clients.

An accomplished business leader, John has previously held executive roles at Microsoft, Intergen, Empired Group and Gen-i, working in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines. He brings a wealth of experience in supporting customers to build world-class digital capability across a range of technical platforms and has delivered multiple key transformation programmes.

Justin Hamilton’s role within the business will change to play a supporting role to John Bessey as a commercial sounding board, with responsibility for managing the broader Dentsu relationship and continuing to support a number of Davanti’s key customers.

Davanti company co-founders, Matt Farrar and Robert Carter will also continue to play key roles within the business, with Matt focusing on business development and account leadership in Wellington and Robert continue to focus on Davanti’s strategic relationship with Salesforce and its growth in Australia.

[ENDS]

About Davanti Consulting

Davanti is a business and technology consultancy with deep expertise in customer engagement, cloud architecture, Salesforce.com and mobility, working with leading New Zealand and Australian commercial enterprises and government organisations.

With a focus on delivering business-led, personalised experiences across every customer touchpoint, Davanti exists for the sole purpose of helping its customers get closer to their customers. To achieve this, Davanti has brought together a group of curious and driven people as a team to bring the breadth of capability that true transformation requires.

Davanti is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network (https://www.dentsuaegisnetwork.com/nz/en), the first global marketing services group built for the digital economy. Davanti’s 130-strong team spans locations in Auckland, Wellington and the East Coast, Australia.