Tag: Leadership

Brisbane, Australia – Media agency UM Australia has announced the appointment of Andrew Copeland as its general manager for Brisbane to help in sustaining the long-term growth plans in Queensland’s expanding market. He will report directly to Anathea Ruys, chief executive officer at UM Australia.

Copeland brings with him extensive experience in creating business strategies and growing revenues whilst discovering how clients can benefit from the media’s ability to connect consumers with brands. In his last stint, he was with Cummins&Partners as chief customer officer where he worked on media strategy and marketing science.

CEO Ruys said that appointing a digital native like Copeland will make UM “something different” in the Brisbane market whilst supporting its fully-integrated model and futureproof strategy.

“UM has fully integrated media across traditional and all forms of digital, technology and data. As we strengthen our national Futureproof planning approach to media, we want to ensure Brisbane is a shining example of delivering strategic dividends for our clients, our staff and our partners. Having a strong leadership team is key to making this happen,” she added.

Meanwhile, Copeland describes UM as an agency that has a wide range of capabilities in addressing and delivering better solutions for the business challenges of clients.

“Queensland marketers are some of the most commercially and technically savvy in the country and deserve an agency that can identify and deliver real solutions to real problems. That’s what we’ve built at UM and I’m excited about the work we’ll do this year,” said Copeland.

In January, UM Australia was appointed as the media agency of record of the Government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT Government).

Singapore – After inaugurating its APAC headquarters in Singapore last year, advertising agency Le Pub appointed Hanh Kanssen as its general manager and Cyril Louis as its executive creative director.

Kanssen brings with her experience in connecting brands and consumers. She has worked with brands from Asia, Europe, and North America where she helped in driving their significant growth. 

Meanwhile, Louis brings expertise in designing products, crafting brands and businesses, creating physical and digital experiences and developing humanitarian initiatives. In his last stint, he was with creative company Elephant as global group creative director.

Amrita Randhawa, chief executive officer at Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, said that with Kanssen’s expertise in several Asian markets and latest cultural trends, combined with Louis’ creative hybrid and passion for technology, they will bring something special to the agency.

Kanssen commented that joining Le Pub is extremely refreshing and exciting, given that the agency helps to build brands in culture.

“Personally, I feel very proud of the world-class creative talent we have on the team, all handpicked to focus on building the next generation of brands that have a strong presence at the table of culture,” she added.

Earlier this year, Le Pub crafted a campaign for beer brand Tiger Beer as part of the lunar new year celebration.

Singapore – Yahoo Advertising, Yahoo’s adtech division, has unveiled its new team that will lead its Australia and Southeast Asia operations. The announcement comes with a remit to support the business’ refreshed focus as a media solutions partner for premium clients.

The new appointments include John McNerney stepping into the new role of managing director for Australia and Southeast Asia. In his new role, he will oversee the newly formed integrated teams across all of Yahoo Advertising’s disciplines. 

Yahoo Advertising will focus on helping partners deliver future-forward, full-funnel digital media solutions. These solutions will be delivered through Yahoo’s industry-leading DSP, allowing advertisers to effectively target audiences across a diverse set of channels including Advanced TV, mobile, display, video and digital out-of-home. 

McNerney explains, “For the past few years our Yahoo team in the region has been taking an increasingly educational and consultative role with partners to help them navigate the increasingly complex digital marketing ecosystem. This move is a natural evolution of that work, and allows our team to focus on helping our partners do more with their marketing budgets.”

Supporting this focus is an experienced management team across APAC:

  • Matt Farrington, APAC head of partnerships & investment, will continue to drive global and local partnership strategy across the region, working closely with commercial and platform delivery teams.
  • Julia Edwards is promoted to commercial director AUSEA, overseeing the commercial development team, focused on profitable revenue growth for new Yahoo Advertising and growing partnerships with key clients and agencies.
  • Andrew Gilbert is promoted to director of platforms AUSEA, driving DSP strategy across the region to help clients better leverage Yahoo’s market-leading omnichannel technology solutions.
  • Kenneth Koh as the head of DSP for SEA will lead the SEA enterprise solutions team in Singapore and help clients grow their business through Yahoo’s buying solutions.
  • Dan Richardson will continue as head of data, APAC, and will also take on oversight of the insights and measurement teams, with an emphasis on supporting the sales team and clients with pre-sales support for targeting, insights, and measurement;
  • Zoe Cocker will continue to inspire partners with solutions with innovation at their core, adding premium sales to her current role leading Yahoo Creative Studios. Here she will help clients harness new technology including Web3 and immersive creative solutions, and harness the power of omnichannel marketing to drive greater results.

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, chief revenue officer at Yahoo, commented on the new appointments, “We’re thrilled to unveil the new Yahoo Advertising with John McNerney at the helm of the new team and sharpened focus across the region. In his new role as MD of Australia and Southeast Asia John’s leadership qualities, deep product knowledge and extensive connection to the industry mean he has all the attributes to take Yahoo Advertising forward under our new strategy.”

McNerney added, “I’m extremely proud and excited to work alongside such a talented group of experts. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of them for several years, and cannot wait to see how they unleash the potential of their teams to drive even more impact for our advertising partners.”

Under the new structure, Yahoo will continue to operate its market-leading DSP, allowing partners to seamlessly create true omnichannel campaigns across channels including digital out-of-home, connected TV, native, display, and Yahoo’s powerhouse owned and operated channels including Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sport, Yahoo Lifestyle and Yahoo Finance.

This follows Yahoo’s key appointments for its APAC team last year to bolster its adtech business in the region.

Sydney, Australia – Marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson has announced the promotion of Gavin Bain, previously national managing director of the agency’s Australian operations, to chief executive officer. The change comes as outgoing Australia CEO, Matt Parry, moves to Hong Kong as WPP team Helix Business Lead for HSBC in Asia-Pacific.

In the new role, Bain will spearhead the continued evolution of the agency’s Australian business through creativity, consulting, and technology capabilities to drive broader organisational impact for clients. 

Bain will also bring with him over 30 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry to the role, having worked in senior client roles at Bankwest and Adelaide Bank, as well as executive agency roles at Marketforce and independent agency Meerkats, where he was CEO for over 10 years. 

Speaking about his new appointment, Bain commented, “I’m thrilled to be taking on this new role and lead such a talented team as we continue to drive further growth and greater impact for our clients.”

He added, “The strong brand and communications approach we’re known for has been strengthened with key capabilities, including business transformation, EX, CX, strategic design, technology, data, and commerce, all connected to help grow the ambitious brands we partner with.”

He likewise wished for Parry’s success in moving into the new role. 

Meanwhile, Parry will lead WPP’s team Helix for HSBC APAC, one of the group’s key global clients, and will relocate to be based in Hong Kong. Before his move to Sydney, Parry was managing director of Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong, growing the agency to be one of the strongest in the market. 

“Wunderman Thompson will continue to grow from strength to strength under Gavin’s brilliant leadership and the team of outstanding individuals that make up the business in Australia. I’m proud of what this group has already achieved, and what is sure to come for them,” said Parry on the new appointments. 

Bain and Parry’s new roles will be effective immediately.

This follows Wunderman Thompson’s leadership appointment spree, including Shailesh Iyer’s appointment to the agency as chief strategy officer for Singapore.

Australia – Havas Media Group has named Rebecca Tos as its new managing partner, where she will lead the new Havas Market× business division, integrating customer experience, e-commerce, and data, working alongside paid media and content activation to help marketers find opportunities to engage consumers across the entire customer decision journey.

A seasoned CEO and marketer, Tos has been building and transforming businesses and brands both strategically and commercially for more than 23 years. She has previously held executive leadership roles, including leading 150 people as managing director of the Dentsu-owned Merkle group of performance, data, and tech businesses, and spent five years as CEO of Columbus. 

Since 2020, Tos has been an advisor to tech, digital and e-commerce companies, including Havas Media since last year.

Speaking on her new role, she stated that she feels energised every day to be working with the agency’s exceptional talent and clients to continue optimising customer experience throughout the e-commerce journey. 

“Customer and shopping experiences have become complex, personal and omnichannel. Leveraging our proprietary technology and expertise,  it’s incredibly rewarding, seeing the impact we have on customer conversion rates, experiences, and imperatively, our clients’ revenue and bottom line,” Tos said.

Meanwhile, Virginia Hyland, CEO of Havas Media Group expressed her optimism in appointing Tos in the role, stating that her deep expertise in ecommerce, customer experience, data, CRM, tech, and performance made her ideally suited to build on the agency’s momentum from 2022’s client work and growth.

“Havas Media’s focus is to answer the challenge marketers face in finding the best opportunity to engage with audiences, whether through ecommerce, content, or paid media. As we strive to be the agency partner that helps marketers operate with ease across the customer decision journey,” she said. 

Hyland added, “We have now moved our capability from optimising within [the] channel to engaging and influencing audiences across the customer decision journey. Rebecca’s passion and experience in the retail sector, has already enhanced the agency, bringing customer experience to the fore, combining ecommerce consulting, marketplaces, SEO, email marketing, CRO, as well as data and analytics.”

Sydney, Australia – To strengthen its strategy offering, Australia-based brand strategy and design agency Houston has announced the appointment of Daye Moffitt as its executive strategy director for Sydney and the promotion of Cara Meade as executive strategy director for Melbourne.

On the new appointments, Founder and CEO Stu O’Brien explained, “Our investment in top-tier strategic talent will pioneer a new era in the business’ go-to-market strategic execution as we continue to play a key role as a trusted strategic brand advisor for iconic brands such as Lendlease, Ampol and Macquarie Bank.”

Moffitt brings with her two decades of local and global experience in brand strategy. Prior to joining Houston, she was executive strategy director for Landor and Fitch Australia and has worked at Designworks Ltd., Principals, and Moon Communications Group.

Speaking about her new role, Moffitt said, “I can’t wait to get going at Houston, to help shape the offering that some of Australia’s largest and most progressive clients are asking for, and that Houston has the unique ability to deliver. These are exciting times and I have no doubt as a team we can deliver some truly extraordinary work together.”

O’Brien also shared his thoughts on Moffitt’s appointment, referring to her as “arguably one of Australia’s foremost strategic leaders.”

“Her role is critical to integrate our national offering across brand, design and creative, delivering growth and strategy for clients at the speed and efficiency demanded by today’s market,” he added.

Meanwhile, Meade has experience leading Toyota Australia and Toyota Asia Pacific’s brand transformation projects over the last 6 years. She likewise led projects for leading universities such as UTS, CSU, and UniSQ, as well as iconic brands including Qantas, Lendlease, NRMA, Origin Energy, Ampol and a range of not-for-profit organisations.

“After 8.5 years at Houston, it’s exciting to be stepping into this leadership role, working alongside Daye. Creating work that has the power to drive positive change is my passion and I’m looking forward to building our business and supporting our talented team in Melbourne and Sydney. I look forward to what 2023 has ahead,” she said. 

O’Brien also expressed his excitement over Meade’s promotion.

“Promoting Cara to a leadership role after many years with us is a natural next step to take our national strategic capability to the next level. Cara brings a level of care and respect to each project she works on – always looking to understand parts of complex systems, and then shaping simple, impactful strategies that deliver tangible results,” he said.

Both will be reporting directly to O’Brien and will immediately commence their new roles.

Hong Kong – The Marketing Society, a global community for marketers, has announced new leadership appointments for Hong Kong which include Natalie Truong as its chair and Hina Wainwright being the new vice chair. The appointments aim to accelerate marketing leadership in the city and across the Asia-Pacific region upon entering the post-pandemic era. 

In their new roles, Truong and Wainwright will lead the society in Hong Kong by curating programme of events, conducting trainings, and mentoring marketing leaders and teams which is aimed to be a step for them to perform well for brands, business, partners and wider society.

They will be working with the non-executive board which includes Edward Bell, general brand manager at Cathay Pacific Airways; Nellie Chan, director of customer solutions at Google; Karl Gregory, head of digital channel, sales and customer engagement at HSBC Asia; Kiri Sinclair, founder and CEO at communications agency Sinclair; Seraphina Wong, co-founder and CMO at Women Workplace Index; and environmental service The ESG Consortium.

Truong brings with her experience in leading B2C and B2B organisations from various industries including professional services, financial services, superannuation and telecommunications across Australia, New Zealand and Asia whilst Wainwright also carries with her leadership experience working at global organisations in Asia from various industries including marketing services, life sciences, engineering and the arts.

Whilst serving the organisation, Truong is simultaneously the current chief marketing officer and partner at consulting firm Mercer. Meanwhile, Wainwright is concurrently with independent marketing service adm Group, similarly holding a chief marketing officer position.

Darren Chuckry, outgoing chair of the society said that it is an honour to serve the society in Hong Kong, knowing that they became connected with inspirational marketers.

Sophie Devonshire, chief executive officer at The Marketing Society, added, “As we look towards exciting times ahead, we are delighted to have two formidable marketing leaders at the helm. Natalie and Hina each have a wealth of rich experience, and are ready to steer new energy into our community.”

Founded in 1959, The Marketing Society is a non-profit organisation that builds community of marketing leaders around the world, with its hubs in England, Scotland, Hong Kong, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and New York.

South Korea – Wunderman Thompson has announced the appointment of KJ Lee as its managing director for South Korea to lead the agency’s operations in the country and build a business with creativity and technology at its core. 

Lee will also support the growth ambitions of existing clients by collaborating with the APAC network whilst securing new businesses by delivering innovative solutions to the challenges being faced by Korean brands.

Lee brings with him a 20-year working experience in advertising companies. In his last stint, he was with creative agency Serviceplan Group as executive director. Working with at advertising agency Leo Burnett, tobacco company Philp Morris International, and WPP’s Geometry Global were also some of his previous experiences.

Furthermore, Lee formerly served as Havas’ vice president, where he led the team’s growth in a highly competitive market. Aside from winning the lead creative agency for premium brand BMW Korea during his stint, he was able to expand client categories to healthcare, and mobile game and platform industries.

Ewen Sturgeon, international CEO at Wunderman Thompson said that they are thrilled to have Lee in their leadership team due to his deep understanding of the challenges in the modern marketing industry.

Meanwhile, Lee said that he aims to strengthen the agency’s presence in Korea by making it a positively recognized, highly recommended, and deeply respected agency in the country.

“The Wunderman Thompson network, including Korea, has the data and innovative strategic and execution tools to build inspiring consumer-centric, omnichannel communications – adding value and meaning to our clients and partners,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Indian leg of Wunderman Thompson has also appointed Richa Dholi as vice president of strategy planning in India.

Manila, Philippines – Advertising, marketing, and public relations agency Ogilvy in the Philippines has appointed Chino Jayme as its new executive creative director and Eileen Borromeo as its strategy director. 

In his new role, Jayme will push the creative agenda for all of Ogilvy’s disciplines and will look after the creative output of the agency’s largest client businesses.

Prior to joining Ogilvy, Jayme was TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno’s creative director and cluster head. His campaigns also gained recognition from Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, New York Festivals, CLIO Awards, Webbys, Spikes, Adfest, Ad Stars, Kidlat, Adobo Design Awards, and Tambuli.

Meanwhile, Borromeo rejoins Ogilvy to help lead the Ogilvy Strategy team in pushing modern non-linear strategic solutions anchored on business, brand, and culture for creative and effective campaigns.

Before her new appointment, Borromeo held the head of strategy and governance role at Kroma Entertainment. She is also co-founder and CMO of app-based pet health and wellness service Life by Petto and had a two-year run as head of marketing for South East Asia and Pakistan for Payoneer.

Ogilvy PH’s CEO Elly Puyat shared her excitement over the new appointments, stating, “We are excited to welcome Chino, a well-respected and multi-awarded creative leader, and to welcome Eileen who we have always admired for her experience and capability back to Ogilvy.”

She also added, “The most successful campaigns that were both creative and effective in achieving clients’ business objectives are always founded on sound thinking that can result in game-changing creative executions.” 

Recently, Ogilvy has also named former chief client officer for Merkle and dentsu CXM APAC Krishnan Menon as its president of experience for Ogilvy Asia.

Queensland, Australia – Strategic brand and commercial agency Bastion Experience has announced its entrance into the Queensland market. The expansion comes with the appointment of Rohan Sawyer, who will be leading the new team as managing director for Queensland. 

In the new role, Sawyer will lead the Bastion Experience team in Queensland while providing clients with access to the full suite of integrated communications services under Bastion’s ‘Think Wide’ model. This will bring together ‘best-in-class’ offerings and experts across research and insights through brand and creative, and advertising, amongst others.

Prior to joining Bastion, Sawyer was Queensland Rugby League’s CEO and chief operating officer for five years. He is also an experienced sports, entertainment, and finance industry executive.

On his appointment, Sawyer said, “I am thrilled to join a market leader and innovator in the industry, with a proven track record of delivering on brands and rights holders’ needs to drive commercial growth. I look forward to contributing my expertise and working with the talented team to deliver significant benefits to brands and their customers.”

Jack Watts, Bastion’s CEO, also expressed his excitement towards the new initiatives.

“Firstly, we love Queensland. It has been a long held ambition to build our fully integrated, independent agency model in Queensland. We started last year with the acquisition of Queensland PR and Social Agency Promedia, now Bastion Amplify, and continue our investment in the state with Rohan and the launch of Bastion Experience,” he said.

He also said that Sawyer is an ‘ideal candidate’ to lead Bastion Experience’s drive into a market set for significant long-term growth.

“We believe our long held reputation and work in Sport and Lifestyle will be critical to our growth in the State, and I don’t believe there is any better executive in Sport than Rohan Sawyer. We’re thrilled to have him on board to lead our commercial, sponsorship and experiential services in Queensland,” Watts added. 

The expansion follows the launch of Bastion Amplify’s entrance into the Queensland market with the acquisition of Gold Coast-based, full-service PR firm Promedia in November 2022.