WOO London Congress 2026

Jean-François Decaux opens WOO London Congress with a R·E·A·L call to action

Park Lane Hilton, London 4 June 2026

Jean-François Decaux delivers the opening keynote at the WOO London Congress 2026

JCDecaux Co-CEO Jean-François Decaux opened the WOO London Congress 2026 with a R·E·A·L framework — four challenges and four opportunities — for an Out of Home industry he believes can grow from 5–6% to a 10% share of global ad spend.

Speaking to a record 807 delegates at the Park Lane Hilton, Decaux argued the sector is at a unique moment as regulators and brands tire of the worst of online advertising — and called on the industry leadership in the room to capitalise on it.

He structured the speech around a single word — REAL — used twice. First as a diagnostic of the obstacles in front of the industry, then as the answer to those same questions.

Keynote Spotlight

Jean-François Decaux

Co-CEO, JCDecaux

Jean-François Decaux, eldest son of company founder Jean-Claude Decaux, joined the Group in 1982, moving to Germany to create and develop the German subsidiary, followed by a relocation to London in 1990 to develop JCDecaux in the UK and subsequently in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, primarily through organic growth. In more recent years, Mr. Decaux has expanded the Group’s interests globally, establishing operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and Central Asia.

Following the acquisition of Havas Communication’s OOH media division in 1999, he led the move to take JCDecaux public on Euronext in 2001, paving the way for it to become the world’s largest and most digitised OOH media group with 2025 revenues of €3,967.1 million, of which 41.7% is digital including 10.9% from Programmatic. JCDecaux operates over 1.1 million advertising panels in 79 countries.

As Chairman of the Executive Board* and Co-CEO of JCDecaux SE, he also takes an active role in the design of new street furniture in collaboration with some of the world’s leading architects and designers, and in the development of innovative services such as the self-service bicycle programme, which has become a huge success in 70 cities with over 500 million bike rentals.

Mr. Decaux serves on the Board of various companies affiliated to the JCDecaux Group and joined the Harvard Business School European Advisory Board in 2009.

* The position of Chairman rotates between Jean-François Decaux and Jean-Charles Decaux on a yearly basis.

Jean-Francois Decaux Gets Real at 2026 Annual Congress

Jean-Francois Decaux Gets Real at 2026 Annual Congress

Jean-François Decaux opens WOO London Congress with a R·E·A·L call to action

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