Tag: Leadership

Hong Kong – Media and marketing communications agency PHD has appointed Antony Yiu as its new chief executive officer in Hong Kong, effective immediately. He will lead PHD’s vision, development, operations and talent growth in his new role.

In addition, he will also be responsible for driving digital transformation, addressing data privacy issues and maximising the use of AdTech and MarTech across clients’ businesses. 

With over 20 years of in-depth experience in digital and performance media across the US and APAC, he joins PHD Hong Kong from DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, where he was most recently the senior vice president of digital acquisitions and martech.

He has also a vast background in working with B2B and B2C clients on consumer marketing across various industries, including finance and travel. His experience expands across multifaceted aspects of media, building brands from the ground up and launching new start-up products.

Speaking of his new role, Yiu said, “I am excited to join the PHD family and bring my experience to transform PHD into a next-generation agency. The mission is to lead PHD as an innovative, agile, and result-driven agency, uniting our talents at all levels to deliver thought leadership and award-winning work.” 

He added, “My focus is on driving innovation and business transformation with our clients. Now is the time for PHD to be courageous, be different, and leave our mark in the agency-client ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, James Hawkins, CEO at PHD APAC, commented, “Antony makes the leap over from client to agency, bringing a strong character, a fresh perspective and a bold ambition that will inspire our people and enable growth for our clients. With his diverse skillsets, we are eager to see what the next chapter brings for the Hong Kong office with Antony at the helm.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has announced the appointment of Desmond Ho as its new group director of creative and digital experience. In the new role, Ho will lead the agency’s Malaysian creative team while driving innovative digital experiences across the region.

He brings with him 19 years of helming creative projects both in-house, and in agencies. His appointment is part of Lion & Lion’s growth plan to further expand their offerings in the digital space, especially with regards to new technologies and developments in the digital, Web3, and social media landscape.

Prior to joining Lion & Lion, he worked internationally in China as head of digital creative solutions for the smart electric vehicle company AVATR. He also previously served as creative director for 180 China, as the e-commerce creative lead for Apple, Nike, and Estée Lauder at Publicis Commerce, and was creative partner at TianYuKong

Ho will report directly to Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer at Lion & Lion.

Speaking on his appointment, Ho said, “My passion is creating unique brand experiences through the combination of insights, technology, and creativity that come together to tell a brand narrative. I am very excited by the strategic, digital, and creative focus of Lion and Lion and having worked under Cheelip’s leadership before, seeing him transform agencies successfully both in China and now with Lion and Lion, I am confident in his vision for growth and am glad to lead new possibilities for clients in Malaysia and the region.”

Meanwhile, Ong commented, “As a creatively-driven, digital-first agency, it is hyper important for us to constantly move the needle forward and meet change where it happens. With the opportunities that are unfolding in the spaces of the Metaverse, Web3, social commerce, and e-Gaming, brands and consumers require new experiences that will engage them. Desmond will help accelerate our creative offerings across all digital frontiers to drive progress for our creatives and our clients.”

Singapore – Oftentimes, we honour the collective genius of marketing and creative agencies against the backdrop of a groundbreaking brand campaign, but this time, we want to dive deeper.

The creative collaboration and process that these creative outfits immerse in is no minute feat, and we want to put the spotlight on the driving force that pushes for their success – the leaders.

There’s leadership and then there’s ‘unique’ leadership; and by this, we mean the agency chiefs that choose to let their ingenuity and out-of-the-box thinking influence the way they lead and empower their teams. 

Called ‘Agency Leadership Decoded’, the series will be inviting the top management of leading creative agencies in APAC to share with us how they are innovating their strategies to keep the morale and engagement of their teams in tip-top shape. 

Through each story, we aim to let leaders reveal their distinct leadership philosophies and share how they are letting their passion and prowess in the creative shapeshift into one-of-a-kind corporate initiatives. 

Learn the interesting insights of the following leaders:

Jiravara shares about how she is helping build within teams the ‘Immunity for change’.

Jacqui lets us in on how they are creating meaningful experiences within the agency that enables them to cast meaningful difference for brands.

Virat talks about the challenge of leaders in creating an environment that is resistance-proof to growth.

Madina discusses how strategic and insight-driven huddles can make a difference in teams’ empowerment.

Thomas shares how the agency is creating success from within in order for the team to live out its mission of ‘creating connected brands.’

Singapore – VJ Anand, current head of creative for VaynerMedia APAC, will be promoted to executive creative director of EMEA. As part of the promotion, Anand will relocate to London to perform his role. The new role takes effect in November this year.

During his previous APAC role, he managed creative teams across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and India, leading projects for PepsiCo and Prudential.

Speaking on his new appointment, he said, “I will really miss the APAC team, but I leave immensely proud that they are all rocketships and working with some of the world’s best brands. We have such a unique approach to creative and marketing and I am excited to scale it and bring my experience and a fresh perspective from APAC. Here’s to exploring and building original, cutting-edge models of creativity with Daisy and the rest of the team in EMEA.”

Meanwhile, as part of EMEA leadership appointments, current head of client partnership Daisy Domenghini is promoted to the role of managing director for EMEA. During her previous role, she led the addition of Durex, Zalando, and Indeed as clients. Prior to VaynerMedia, Daisy was global client MD at The Engine Group. 

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, At VaynerMedia, we take great pride in promoting and relocating talent. Since joining last year, Daisy has demonstrated exceptional qualities of being a great leader, truly understanding our integrated model of having creative and media working seamlessly together.” 

He added, “VJ joined VaynerMedia APAC at its inception in 2019 and has helped grow the office to over 250 people strong. I am confident that their partnership will propel our rapidly expanding presence in EMEA.”

London, United Kingdom – Wendy Clark, the current chief executive officer of Dentsu International, is set to leave the company following a global restructuring as mandated by dentsu’s head office in Japan. The restructuring is part of dentsu’s initiative to transition towards a ‘one management team’ system.

In a LinkedIn post, Clark reflected on her time with Dentsu for two years, including a 17% growth in the agency for the first quarter of 2021, and the massive wins of Dentsu Creative Bengaluru for their campaign with Vice.

“Make no mistake, this is progress not perfection. While we lead in certain aspects of our strategy, we have work to do in others and areas we need to improve upon as a company,” she said.

Clark added, “But this performance is ahead of our mid-term management plan and as such the time is right for Dentsu International to integrate into Dentsu Group, led by Hiroshi Igarashi and one management team. As the outgoing DI CEO, I will help Igarashi-san and the DI Exec Team with this transition through the end of this year.”

Clark’s resignation from Dentsu International takes effect on December 31 this year, as well as stepping down from her role as director and executive officer of the company. 

Through the global leadership restructuring, Dentsu Group will have its business operations conducted in four regions—Japan, Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The upcoming “one management team” led by president and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi will comprise a culturally diverse group of leaders with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

In addition, the Dentsu group will globally integrate each of its corporate functions to build a common management platform. On September 15, the group will launch a dedicated integration office to drive a seamless transformation process.

Singapore – Global adtech data solutions company Lotame has announced key elevations to its current leadership team in Asia-Pacific. They include Nishanth Raju, former VP for commercial and strategy, promoted to managing director for Southeast Asia; and Fred Marthoz, former SEA managing director, promoted to VP of global partnerships.

In his new role, Nishant will oversee business operations, forge strategic partnerships, growth and overall performance in the region in addition to increasing Panorama ID (the first global cookieless identity solution for a privacy-first open web) adoption across APAC.

He has over 17 years of experience in SaaS sales, client success, technology and data-driven solutions and consulting. Prior to Lotame, he was at Omnicom Media Group for over six years, where he was part of the founding team of Annalect Singapore. Annalect worked in close collaboration with OMD and PHD to offer technology, data and analytics solutions for regional and global clients across APAC.

Meanwhile, Marthoz is relocating to London, where he will be responsible for managing global deals and work in close collaboration with different regions to execute such opportunities. An industry veteran with over 20 years, Marthoz has been a product and sales leader.

Prior to Lotame, he launched Mocean Mobile in EMEA and served as the company’s Managing Director, EMEA. Earlier in his career, Marthoz held global leadership roles working for a number of big brands as well as emerging startups, including Microsoft, Google, and Playphone, among others.

Marthoz said, “Having worked with him closely in this region, his exposure to different roles and industry verticals has given him a unique perspective on our ecosystem and a better grasp of the bigger industry picture. I wish him all the success for his new role and excited to see him continue to accelerate our business in APAC.”

He added, “Our growth across regions has been substantial and as I take on a new role, I’m very excited to continue Lotame’s journey of developing high-impact solutions for marketers and publishers, together with a dynamic and dedicated team.”

Meanwhile, Chris Hogg, chief revenue officer at Lotame, commented, “With such important global initiatives in the pipeline, having both Nish and Fred at the wheel on our global teams is very exciting. Both leaders have delivered tremendous results in their various roles at Lotame and I look forward to their stewardship and contributions in our next phase of growth.”

Singapore – Annalect, the data and analytics division of Omnicom Media Group, has announced three key APAC appointments, namely Ravikumar Shankar as chief data solutions officer, Nina Fedorczuk as chief enablement officer, and Kothandaram Venkatakrishnan as chief client officer.

Shankar was previously Annalect’s data and technology lead for APAC and has led the network’s data innovation capabilities by combining deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge marketing technology solutions. In his new role, Shankar will continue to play a vital role in shaping clients’ and agencies’ data and marketing technology vision in a continuously evolving privacy landscape.

Meanwhile, Fedorczuk has been a part of the OMG network for 15 years. Throughout her career with OMG, Nina has led the innovation enablement team across EMEA and APAC and played a key role in developing and fortifying OMG Insights and Innovation community in APAC. In the new role, she will be steering the operations and adoption of Omni, the group’s proprietary marketing operating system, to empower teams across the agency network to build first-class marketing solutions for clients.

Lastly, Venkatakrishnan brings nearly two decades of multinational experience in his new role, and was recently the managing director at Annalect in New York, responsible for transforming data and analytics operations for Nissan. Prior to joining OMG, he held global data and analytics leadership roles in Wunderman Thompson across the US and UK.

All three appointees will report directly to Paul Shepherd, chief investment officer and president of Annalect at OMG APAC.

Shepherd said, “As we help our clients navigate a challenging business landscape, data and analytics will be a key differentiator in driving growth, value and transformation for organisations across all industries. The appointments of Ravi, Nina and Kothand underscore our commitment to help our clients leverage data and analytics to make more informed and customer-centric business decisions. The trio’s extensive experiences, skillsets and comprehension of the field is an indispensable advantage for the agency, which translates to invaluable benefits for our clients.”

Singapore – Rokas Sidlauskas, formerly affiliated with Hello Health Group, joins the leadership roster of loyalty platform Society Pass as its chief marketing officer. 

Prior to joining Society Pass, Sidlauskas held several roles at Hello Health Group, including leading its corporate development and handling the roles of head of product business solutions and head of branded services. He spent over two years at said company.

Sidlauskas was also the co-founder of digital marketing agency Lion&Lion and served as its vice president for business development from 2013 before moving to Australian social commerce company ENSOGO in 2014 as its vice president for sales.

Following the closure of ENSOGO’s Southeast Asian operations in 2016, Sidlauskas moved to gym-sharing platform start-up Passport Asia as its vice president for international business development. He then moved to fitness company CMG.ASIA as a director and venture lead, and served there for over two years. Lastly, he served as the chief executive officer and co-founder of home-based healthcare solution company GO.CARE.

Sidlauskas’ recent leadership announcement comes on top of its numerous acquisitions in Southeast Asia, including Philippine delivery platforms Mangan and Pushkart.ph, Thailand-based Thoughtful Media, and Vietnam-based delivery service Handycart under Dream Space.

Australia – Red Havas in Australia has reshaped its leadership team to reflect local opportunities and its global focus on key growth areas; health and wellness, corporate PR and reputation management, technology and e-commerce, consumer, and lifestyle, automotive and mobility, travel and hospitality and employee engagement.

Simone Gupta, CEO at Havas PR Australia, and leading Red Havas, Havas Blvd, One Green Bean and Organic, will continue in her role and report into James Wright, global CEO at Red Havas, and global chairman of the Havas PR Global Collective.

Meanwhile, current Red Havas Managing Director, Steve Fontanot, will take up a new role, commercial managing director for APAC that will include M&A and commercial partnerships. He will support the Havas APAC leadership team on strengthening the PR offering in the region. Steve will continue his role as managing director of Havas Blvd.

Other promotions include Kate Smailes, current executive director at Havas Blvd promoted to managing partner at Havas Blvd and chief client officer; Alex Bryant, current executive director at Sydney PR promoted to managing partner consumer and brand; and Sue Cook, current practice head of health, is promoted to managing partner of health and wellbeing , supported by Nicole Phillips, executive director.

Furthermore, Matt Thomas, current executive director of corporate and public affairs is promoted to managing partner of corporate and public affairs; and Haylie Marchant, current executive director at Brisbane, is promoted to managing partner.

Wright said, “It is an exciting new phase for Red Havas as we grow our global micro-network of agencies. We have great leaders in place to take us into the next evolution of the business and a superb group of future leaders helping us power the business. These changes enable the business to strengthen our areas of specialisations, as well continue to develop new offerings as clients evolve. Red Havas Australia continues to be one of the strongest performers for Havas in the APAC region.”

Meanwhile, Gupta commented, “Over the past 18 months myself and Steve have taken the Red Havas senior leadership team in Australia through a number of changes, to ensure we are future fit in this transformed world to grow the business and changing needs of clients. The deep expertise and experience of this leadership team reflects key areas of opportunity and growth, and enables us to attract the best talent.”

Manila, Philippines – Global digital payments company Visa has appointed Jeff Navarro as its new country manager for the Philippines and Guam. He succeeds previous country manager Dan Wolbert, who has moved to a new role for Visa North America.

Navarro was previously the regional vice president for the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indochina at Western Union. He also served as the president and chairman of the board at Western Union Processing Services Inc. Prior to joining Western Union, he has also worked with SMART Communications and Shell across sales, brand, and business development roles.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “It is a great pleasure for me to join Visa, a global leader in payments and money movement, areas which are near and dear to my heart. I am excited and honoured to have the opportunity to lead a team of seasoned professionals, who share the drive and passion to further widen financial inclusion for all Filipinos.” 

He added, “I look forward to working closely with our clients, fintechs, the regulator, and all stakeholders to grow digital payments in the country, and enable individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”

Meanwhile, Tareq Muhmood, Visa’s Group Country Manager for Regional Southeast Asia, said, “I am delighted to have Jeff lead our team in the Philippines and Guam as the country manager. Jeff’s regional experience and in-depth knowledge of the financial services industry will be an asset for Visa and will serve him well in leading our team.”

He added, “Jeff and the team will drive our business agenda with clients, consumers, and regulators in the Philippines and Guam, in line with our purpose to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.”