Virginia Hyland has broken her silence on her departure from Havas, sharing her pride in her accomplishments in her time with the holding company, as James Wright, CEO of Havas Creative Network ANZ, has been appointed to take on the role of Havas Group CEO ANZ.
Mediaweek spoke with Wright about Hyland’s departure, stepping up to the new role, market dynamics and his vision for growth in the year ahead.
A positive parting: Virginia’s legacy at Havas
Hyland’s exit from the holding co last week follows the completion of the buy-out period after the acquisition of her independent agency, Hyland Media, in 2020.
Hyland said of her departure: “I want to thank Havas for welcoming Hyland Media and our clients into the fold. It’s been a privilege to work alongside so many creative, driven, and talented people across the local and global network.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together. To my teammates—thank you for believing in our shared vision as a challenger agency to Dare to be Different.
“To our valued clients—I wish you continued success as you navigate the exciting future of data, tech, and AI. It has been my personal pleasure to be part of your journey, some for as long as 25 years.”
After selling her independent agency to the French holding company, she took on the role of Managing Director, Hyland Division.
She worked alongside the agency’s senior leadership team of the time, Mike Wilson, Chairman, Havas Media Group ANZ and Matt Houltham, CEO, Havas Media Group ANZ and played a pivotal role in shaping Havas Media AUNZ.
Wright on Hyland: ‘She’s finished her earn out of her business and wish her the very best with whatever her next steps are.’
Hyland is the current Deputy Chair of the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) and is a well-regarded media industry leader, collaborating with the wider Havas Village.
Under her leadership, Havas Media secured major new business wins, including Red Bull, Perfetti, Uniting, Tourism Fiji and Retail Food Group.
Hyland also led the successful launch of Havas PLAY and CSA (Data, Tech & Analytics) and played a key role in the acquisition of Hotglue in August 2024 to strengthen both Havas Media and Havas PLAY’s Melbourne presence.
Wright shared with Mediaweek that he had been in conversations with Hyland over the past few weeks and months about her exit.
“We’ve got into a positive and progressive place. She’s finished her earn out of her business and wish her the very best with whatever her next steps are.”
The Group also extended its thanks to Hyland for her contribution and impact on the agency.
“Havas values her energy and commitment during her time and wish her the very best as she plans to take a well-earned break for the remainder of 2025.
“Havas Media Network will confirm future leadership announcements in due course, including the recruitment of a new Media CEO who will report to Wright.”
Stepping up and shaping Havas’ future
Wright, who has been with Havas for the past 14 years, is stepping into the Group CEO ANZ role after returning to Australia in 2023.
He oversaw the global Havas PR Network in Australia and New York. Under his leadership, the local Creative Network developed and extended its footprint in creative, PR and publicity, Public Affairs and Health.
He will also continue to drive transformation as Global CEO for Havas Red and Global Chair of the Havas PR Network, based in Sydney.
“Now we can create it all in one leadership team. There are huge opportunities as we move to even more aggressively integrate our village offering across creative media, health, PR, public affairs, publicity, events, brand experience, and technology and AI, which we’ve been heavily focused on in the last two to three years.”
Wright noted that he develops all the agencies around three Cs – culture, creativity and commercials.
“We are a business, and so we need to make money, but we want to do it by being the best place you’ve ever worked and doing creative work that makes other agencies jealous.”
Financial goals and launching jealously inducing creative work aside, Wright acknowledges that Havas’ different agencies have been doing a lot of work in its creative strategy for the last 18 months.
“I think we’re starting to reap dividends from that, both in the work and the clients we’re attracting. The clients are trusting us with our ideas and places we want to take them.”
Wright also noted that the hard work is also being done in Havas’ media agencies. He said: “I think we come at briefs perhaps slightly differently and with a bit more of a challenging mindset than perhaps some of the bigger holding groups.
“So, I really enjoy that challenge and clients seem to be enjoying it, too, and certainly have been trusting us with some interesting approaches to their business challenges.
Wright: ‘It’s a big market for Havas, and it’s an important market for Havas, and we’ll continue to invest and develop as you would expect from a progressive business and holding company.’
Future-ready: How Havas plans to stay ahead
In a fast-paced industry, Wright said he has no plans on cutting corners on strategy and creative.
“I think that’s where we want to continue to invest,” he said.
“We are seeing a juniorisation across all the agencies in whichever marketing discipline it is. We need to maintain a superior level of excellence in both our creative and strategic approaches.
“We want to continue to invest in that, but we also want to continue to invest in the technology, AI and data capabilities.
“I sit on the global leadership team that is looking at this. I think Australia is a great market for accessing those technologies.
“Clients are hungry for it and they want to learn about it. We want to showcase all of that capability and the work that we do here. Watch this space in the next year or two.”
AI is steadily embedded into the Havas ecosystem after announcing last year, at Cannes, its investment of €400 million in data, tech and AI over the next four years as part of its global strategy and operating system, Converged.AI.
Wright noted senior stakeholders of the agency are in AI working committees, and agencies have been adopting the technology, from ideation, copywriting, project management and workflow efficiency.
“The opportunity there is endless. I always believed that AI would make you better, but we always need to be better than AI,” he added.
Navigating challenges while seizing new opportunities
For Wright, Havas has had a “fairly resilient 18 months” despite a tough year for the agency’s clients and a dip in consumer confidence as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
“This year, it’s been quite resilient in the first six months. It remains a tough market. It’s not getting easy, but it’s certainly getting easier, and I see some green shoots for the second half of the year.”
“It’s not the land of milk and honey, of course, there are always challenges. But with that, there are as many opportunities as there are challenges.
“We’re profitable and are growing. We’d like to grow faster and stronger, and that’s what we plan to do now as a holistic village.
Looking ahead to 2026, Wright predicted a better outlook with a growing economy.
“Higher levels of consumer confidence, interest rates coming down and hopefully clients’ wallets opening up further.”
Wright noted that as a Group, Havas wants to be a place where the best talent thrives in their work and where clients go for great strategy, creative and ideas, both from a media and creative perspective.
“For Havas Media specifically, we want to grow. We want to develop our footprint further. We plan to make further investments in people and the market here in Australia.
“It’s a big market for Havas, and it’s an important market for Havas, and we’ll continue to invest and develop as you would expect from a progressive business and holding company.”
Wright noted that Havas has made several acquisitions and talent hires over the last four years, and it has become “a market we feel very confident in.”
“When you’ve got fantastic talent, you can start to do fantastic work. If you can do fantastic work with fantastic talent, you should be a commercial success.”
Top image: James Wright and Virginia Hyland