Dentsu has made its second big-name appointment of the new year, poaching Eduardo Tavares from Area 23 to serve as executive creative director of Dentsu Health. The appointment comes a few days after the company announced the promotion of Greg Reilly to president.

An artist by training, Tavares was most recently SVP, group creative director for craft and design at Area 23. Prior to his tenure there, he spent five years at FCB Lisbon, rising to the rank of creative supervisor.

At Area 23, Tavares worked on a host of the agency’s largest accounts, including Novartis, GSK, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim. In doing so, he established himself as one of the agency world’s preeminent creatives.

“Craft should be at the heart of everything we do, but it’s more than that for me,” Tavares said in a statement. “It’s about diverse collaboration and building integrated creative offerings worldwide. That will ultimately elevate the creativity and outcomes of the work for our clients and their customers everywhere.”

In the executive creative director role, Tavares will work alongside Dentsu Health global chief creative officer Collette Douaihy. Douaihy joined the agency last January from Evoke, where she was chief creative officer.

“Technology will continue to play a significant role in the next generation of healthcare marketing, but it’s empathic storytelling and craft that will move audiences — that’s where Eduardo comes in,” Douaihy said in the statement. “Eduardo’s rare combination of experience, entrepreneurial energy and empathetic storytelling makes him exactly the leader we need to elevate our creative profile and deliver extraordinary work for our clients.”  

During an interview earlier this week, Reilly had teased the Tavares hire, pointing to the imminent addition of “major” creative talent.

“Having someone of Eduardo’s talent and passion join dentsu health speaks to the differentiation and attractiveness of our offering — not only to clients, but to health marketing professionals as well. Eduardo joins us with a shared belief and passion in transforming the next decade of health,” Reilly said in the statement. 

Prior to the debut of Dentsu Health in April 2021, Dentsu was the sole major global network that lacked a formalized health offering. Since then, Dentsu Health has become one of the network’s flagship brands, alongside media agency Carat, digital agency 360i and customer experience/data agency Merkle.