Kyoko Matsushita

Kyoko Matsushita is Global CEO at Essence, where she is responsible for overseeing the company’s global growth, culture, and innovation and ensuring Essence delivers on its mission to make advertising more valuable to the world.

A client-centric leader who is passionate about growing companies and helping people, Kyoko first joined Essence in 2014 to lead the agency’s rapid expansion in APAC. As CEO for APAC, Kyoko oversaw the management of all 11 offices in the region and established Essence's presence in Beijing, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jakarta, Melbourne, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tokyo. Prior to being named Essence's Global CEO, Kyoko served as the agency's first Global Chief Client Officer, leading Essence’s global Client Services practice, client satisfaction, and both organic and new business growth.

For more than two decades, Kyoko has held global and regional roles overseeing media, marketing, business development, product and operations. Before joining Essence, she was Vice-President at GREE, a leading mobile gaming company, where she scaled international operations and headed digital marketing and strategy at Sony Europe, as well as led marketing for online games at Electronic Arts for both EMEA and APAC. She has also served as a Global Account Director at Leo Burnett and Starcom Media from the agencies’ Chicago, Frankfurt, and Tokyo offices.

Kyoko earned a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Based in San Francisco with her husband and two children, in her spare time she enjoys hiking, practicing Aikido, and volunteering as a game tester for educational apps.