Ricardo Pérez Valcárcel will close his time as Marketing Director of JCDecaux Spain to assume the General Management of JCDecaux Mexico. The appointment will be effective as of December 1, 2026 and marks the return of the manager to the Mexican market, where he already worked for the company before moving to Spain.
The move puts an end to Pérez’s almost six years at the head of JCDecaux’s Marketing area in Spain, a position he assumed in January 2021 after having held marketing responsibilities in the Mexican subsidiary since 2018.
His departure occurs as part of an internal change within the group. Mario Guzmán Garza, until now Marketing Director of JCDecaux Mexico, has already assumed the Marketing Management of JCDecaux Spain from Madrid and will report directly to Carlos Barón, General Director of the company in Spain.
“I close this stage at JCDecaux Spain with deep and sincere gratitude. It has been an enormous privilege to be part of this office, and I want to heartily thank the entire team that makes it up,” Pérez pointed out on the occasion of the announcement.
Almost six years in charge of marketing at JCDecaux Spain
Ricardo Pérez arrived in Spain after the departure of María Jesús Solaún, until then Commercial and Marketing Director of JCDecaux. From his position, he assumed the company’s general marketing strategy with the aim of reinforcing its positioning and brand value, as well as promoting new initiatives linked to business development.
In saying goodbye to this stage, he especially highlighted the work carried out by the team in Spain
His stage has coincided with a significant transformation of outdoor advertising and, particularly, with the advance of digitalization. Among the strategic areas in which he has worked during these years are the development and marketing of digital products, Foreign programmatic and alliances in data and innovation.
In saying goodbye to this stage, Pérez especially highlighted the work carried out by the team in Spain. “Thanks to their talent and daily dedication, our subsidiary has established itself as a true pillar within the Group,” has assured.
Carlos Barón also thanked “the excellent work carried out during these years at the head of Marketing at JCDecaux Spain”as well as his contribution “to the growth and evolution of the company.”
The Marketing Management is now in the hands of Mario Guzmán, a professional whom Pérez knows from his previous stage in Mexico. “I leave this project in the best possible hands. I know Mario very well, I know the great vision he has, and I am absolutely convinced that he will guide the department to new successes”he pointed out.
“Marina Prieto”, one of the most notable projects of his stage
Among the initiatives developed during his mandate, “Marina Prieto” stands out, the campaign created together with David Madrid to highlight the possibilities of the Madrid Metro’s advertising media. The project used unmarketed spaces to display posts from the Instagram profile of Marina Prieto, a 100-year-old Galician woman virtually unknown to the public.
The action functioned as a demonstration of the creative potential of the medium itself and obtained, among other recognitions, the Creative B2B Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024, the first achieved by Spain in this category.
Ricardo Pérez precisely analyzed the project together with Saulo Rocha, Chief Creative Officer of David Madrid, during Cannes Lions Insiders 2024, a meeting organized by reason.Why. He then explained that JCDecaux had recorded a doubling of the average investment per advertiser as a result of the initiative, although he placed its main impact on the change in perception about the medium and the repositioning of its offer.
“50% of campaign success is attributable to the way you adapt the creative idea to the medium”Pérez pointed out during that conversation. “The way to bring a great idea to a medium has to combine with the way it interacts with other mediums, with the realities of the population you are talking to. It is a campaign that, ultimately, speaks of the power of creativity.”
Ricardo Pérez’s promotion comes at a time of growth for JCDecaux. The group closed the first half of 2026 with a turnover of 1,953.9 million euros, which represents organic growth of 5.7%.
The group closed the first half of 2026 with organic turnover growth of 5.7%
The evolution of digital business is being especially significant. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) turnover increased organically by 14.5% during the period and now represents 42.8% of the group’s total turnover. For its part, programmatic grew by 30.9% and represents 12.3% of digital billing.
The group closed 2025 with an adjusted turnover of 3,967.1 million euros and is currently present in more than 80 countries, with a daily audience of 850 million people.
The appointment as General Director means that Ricardo Pérez returns to the market in which he began his career within JCDecaux. Before joining the group, he developed his career in different consumer companies in Mexico. Between 2013 and 2014 he was Brand Manager at Grupo Herdez and later served as Brand Manager at Nestlé until 2016. He then joined ACH Food Companies as Brand Group Manager of Groceries, being responsible for brands such as Karo and Twinings.
In May 2018 he made the leap to outdoor advertising when he joined JCDecaux Mexico as Marketing Director, a responsibility he held until the end of 2020. In January 2021 he moved to Madrid to assume the Marketing Directorship of JCDecaux Spain. Now, after more than eight years within the group and almost six years developing its activity in Spain, Ricardo Pérez returns to Mexico to assume maximum responsibility for JCDecaux in the country.
