Jean-François Decaux, Co-CEO and Chairman of JCDecaux, and eldest son of founder Jean-Claude Decaux, will be the keynote speaker at the World Out of Home Organization's 2026 Annual Congress in London from June 3-5. The Congress will be held at the Park Lane Hilton and is expected to attract a record number of delegates.
JCDecaux is the world's biggest Out of Home media owner with an annual turnover of almost €4BN with major operations in Europe, Asia, the United States and across the world.
WOO President Tom Goddard says: "Jean--François isn't just a major figure in Out of Home but one of the architects of the modern media world, playing a key role in growing the medium to where it is today and helping to transform cities and other localities for the better through his company's investment in street furniture and a range of other civic amenities.
"This event promises to be WOO's biggest and best Annual Congress, which for the first time since 1990 is being held in the UK. “There is no one more knowledgeable and passionate about our industry than Jean- Francois, and I always come away from my meetings with him enthused and energised. We therefore eagerly await hearing his views on the future of OOH”
KEYNOTE SPOTLIGHT: Jean-François Decaux
Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO, JCDecaux SE
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 € 3967.1 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 also in the development of innovative services such as the self-service bicycle program, 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.#WOOLondon26
DOWNLOAD INFORMATION FLYER HERE
Interested in becoming a member?
Fill in your details and submit the form, we will contact you shortly about membership...
Subscribe to our weekly OOH newsletter
LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS: focusing on the top OOH stories of the week from around the world.
