Don Scales | Global CEO | Investis Digital
“Every company has a culture. Every company has a set of values. Every company has leaders. When considering an acquisition—either as the acquirer or the acquiree—you must understand the culture and values of the other company and how its leadership interacts with employees and customers.”
Over the course of a career spanning more than three decades, Don Scales has led over forty merger and acquisition transactions, primarily on the buying side. With that, he has learned critical lessons on company culture, company values, and how alignment is essential for the long-term viability of any organization. That principle has helped him shepherd companies through tense—often business-threatening—post-acquisition transition periods, and informed the work he has done with his own business.
Currently the global CEO of Investis Digital, Don is leading a company unlike anything else in the digital communications space. He’s put together a value-driven team with deep expertise in corporate communications and investor relations and united them with innovative performance marketing experts and world-class technology solutions to help companies connect with audiences across all digital touch points.
Since Don joined in 2016, Investis Digital has seen exponential growth. In 2018, he spearheaded a rebranding of the business, including a new name, Investis Digital, that reflects the focus on delivering sustained value by helping clients connect with their customers through digital channels.
Leading the launch of Connect.ID in 2019, Don and his team put his corporate values philosophy on display, collaborating to deliver an innovative technology platform that makes it possible for businesses to develop content that connects with their audiences across a rapidly developing digital universe in a secure fashion. Today, the company has nine global offices and 1,600 clients, including Anglo American, Citrix, Rolls-Royce, Fruit of the Loom, and Vodafone.
Before his tenure as CEO at Investis Digital began, Don grew a small search agency called iCrossing into a global full-service digital agency that was acquired by Hearst Corporation for over $300 million. At an even earlier stay as CEO of Omnicom Group’s Agency.com, Don guided the company through a significant growth period that would become his signature achievement at each stop of his career.
Deciding it was time to share his deep knowledge, Don co-authored his first book, How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm in 2020 with Fran Biderman-Gross. His newest work, The M&A Solution: A Values-Based Approach to Integrate Companies, focuses on the necessity for corporate values alignment for successful mergers and acquisition transitions.
In addition to his MBA from Harvard Business School, Don has dual undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Mathematical Physics, and a Master of Chemical Engineering from Rice University.
