Tag: Appointments

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-headquartered global news company The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has announced the appointment of Lou Wee as its new director of global strategic business. 

Based in Hong Kong, Wee’s role sits within the Post’s Advertising and Marketing Solutions (AMS) business with the mandate to build and nurture long-term partnerships with global strategic accounts. 

Wee rejoins SCMP after his move to VICE Media as vice president of sales and brand partnerships, APAC in 2022. In SCMP, he previously held the roles of head of advertising sales for Hong Kong and regional markets as well as regional director of advertising and partnerships for more than three years. 

With over 15 years of diverse media and advertising experience acquired from Hong Kong and Singapore, Wee counts VICE Media, FOX Networks Group, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal amongst his prior career appointments where he was responsible for advertising sales and partnerships.

Commenting on his appointment, Wee said, “Hong Kong holds a very special place in my heart – not only has it been my home base for the past 8 years, I also owe much of the success that I enjoy in my personal and professional life to this city.”

He added, “My appointment and return to SCMP comes at an exciting point of the Post’s journey as it enters its 120th year of journalistic legacy, the reopening of Hong Kong to the rest of the world and a tech-forward next-phase which will continue to pave the way for SCMP’s leading role in the Asia media industry.”

Kevin Huang, chief operating officer of SCMP also said that Wee’s rich industry and regional background reflects the mission of SCMP’s global strategic business, which is to work with partners worldwide in targeting respective local markets across APAC and globally.

Huang added, “As our readers are a global community, the majority of which comprises the APAC market with a particularly strong presence in Hong Kong, Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia, followed by the North America market, Wee’s homecoming highlights the Post’s robust regional position and strong confidence in Asia as a leading global hub for media and advertising.”

This follows Sophia Yu’s appointment as managing director of SCMP’s magazine division, SCMP Hearst.

Singapore – International food company Yummy United has initiated Asia’s first-ever Kids Board of Directors (BODs) via its inaugural launch programme held in Singapore. The launch is in partnership with Food Union to rebrand its existing frozen cheese curd snack line, Lakto. 

For the rebranding effort, children aged eight to 12 years old were called for an opportunity to be mentored on finance, marketing, creative execution, and public relations via its recruitment campaign last July.

The programme placed the kids in control and spearheaded a business with guidance from industry professionals. Through the process, the kids obtained a deeper understanding of the functions of managing a business.

Among the 20 shortlisted director trainees mentored under the Yummy United Training Programme were the previously announced Kids Board of Directors, namely nine-year-old Lucas Lim, creative director; eight-year-old Ashley Shannon McGovern, public relations director; ten-year-old Eliana Yazdi, marketing director; and 11-year-old Chloe Oh, finance director.

The four young Kids BODs worked together to conceptualise the rebranding of Lakto. The refreshed packaging for Lakto was designed and hand-drawn by the creative director and the strategic planning process for communications was led by the public relations director. 

Meanwhile, the marketing director took charge of the content-creating process for Yummy United’s official social media pages while the financial strategies and account operations were overseen by the finance director.

The newly refreshed Lakto packaging, fully designed and curated by the four Kids BODs, is now available at supermarkets and convenience stores around Singapore.

Auckland, New Zealand – Public relations agency Mango Aotearoa has announced four new hires across its PR team namely Jo Martin as public relations account director, and account managers Braxton Dinnan, Ellen Pye and Clea Kanning.

Martin joined at the start of the year after a number of years running Brand New You, a personal branding organisation first established in Australia before setting up in New Zealand in 2020. Dinnan was also with Martin at Brand New You, and brings experience across PR, marketing and e-commerce.

Meanwhile, Pye was previously from Showroom 22 and brings her knowledge of fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands to Mango clients including Specsavers and Lion Beverages, as well as campaigns such as Correct the Internet for Team Heroine.

Lastly, Kanning, who hails from the UK, brings strong PR and social expertise, and is working with the team on Samsung, Booking.com and The Warehouse Group.

Managing Director Sean Brown says Mango Aotearoa is excited to expand the team and welcome such a variety of skilled people to the agency.

“As our business continues to grow, we are pleased to bolster our offering so that we can continue to provide top end integrated marcomms work for our fantastic clients. It’s particularly pleasing that Mango continues to attract the best talent, and we are delighted to welcome our four new recruits,” Brown said.

Some of the client accounts Mango Aotearoa has handled includes Cannabis Clinic, Volkswagen New Zealand, and Bendon Lingerie.

Sydney, Australia – Australian communications consultancy Honner has announced new appointments for its senior team, reinforcing the agency’s position as one of Australia’s leading specialist corporate and financial communications firms.

Equity partner Susie Bell has been appointed managing partner, focusing on leading Honner’s people and culture. In the new role, Bell works closely with founder and CEO Philippa Honner to drive a range of management responsibilities in addition to leading the agency’s relationships with key clients.

Meanwhile, Alison Kahler has joined the Honner team as its new senior consultant – content, in response to ongoing demand for ‘high-quality, strategically driven’ content programs in the financial services sector. 

In the new role, Kahler brings with her more than 25 years of experience as a financial journalist and communications adviser for major publications and institutions. At Honner, she will be working across the firm’s financial services, corporate, and technology clients offering content strategy development and delivery as well as strategic communications counsel. 

Another addition to the team is Rashmi Punjabi, who has been appointed to the newly created role of head of business development. She will work closely with the CEO and senior leadership team to drive new business efforts across traditional finance and new economy sectors, as well as lead marketing initiatives for the agency.

Honner has also formalised its senior leadership team, in recognition of the collective contribution the agency’s senior consultants make in managing a growing consultancy. 

Along with Honner, Bell, Kahler, and Punjabi, the new team includes Judith Bence, chief operating officer; Craig Morris, head of marketing solutions; Samantha Rockliff, senior consultant; Fiona Parker, chief strategy officer; and Natasha Moldrich, account director.

Speaking about the appointments, Honner said that they reflected the firm’s ambitions to continue broadening its offering across the Australian and APAC region.

“Each year we behave more like a traditional consultant – working with a wide range of stakeholders to deliver highly tailored, strategically driven programs that make a commercial impact,” she said.

Honner also added, “We’re investing in our team, digital tools and infrastructure to support the next phase of growth – as clients continue to value specialist agencies that bring deep market insights and creative ideas to the table, operating as a dynamic and flexible extension of their in-house team.”

Bell also commented that continuous learning and global curiosity were strong contributors to the firm’s culture. “The Honner team is our greatest strength, and we are extremely proud of our diverse range of talent. We’re committed to delivering relevant and future focused training and team experiences that add value and create a real impact.”

Singapore – Global digital agency DEPT has appointed Diphaa Nair as its director of strategic alliances for APAC. As part of her remit, Nair will be working closely with India-based Tekno Point/DEPT team to expand the agency’s Adobe Practice globally. 

Nair comes from a strong technology background and was more recently with Adobe where she spent more than six years as the head of partners for South Asia. Prior to this, she worked with CA Technologies as a channel director and spent four years with MphasiS, an HP company.

Based out of Melbourne, she will report jointly to Vishnu Mohan, partner and chief growth officer at DEPT APAC and Evan Davey, founding partner of Two Bulls/DEPT to drive the commercial development across its set of offerings both in Australia as well as other parts of APAC region.

Commenting on her appointment, Nair said, “I am happy to join DEPT with its pioneering spirit and boutique culture. Both Two Bulls/DEPT and Tekno Point/DEPT have exciting, cutting-edge offerings with great potential in the industry. I look forward to working with Vishnu, James, Evan and the Tekno Point/DEPT leadership team to manage their Strategic Alliance proposition in APAC.”

Mohan also commented, stating, “Diphaa is joining the team at exactly the right time as we’re growing the APAC region and its full-service offering.”

He also added that Nair’s over two decades of experience in digital technologies, customer experience, and business transformation will help the company provide the tools businesses need to deliver pioneering digital solutions.

The appointment follows DEPT’s recent acquisition of the 500-strong Adobe DX specialist firm Tekno Point.

California, USA – Global advertising technology company Quantcast has announced three new appointments to strengthen its operations in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia, including Sonal Patel as its new managing director for APAC, Daniel O’Connor as commercial director for Australia and New Zealand, and Rueben Vijaratnam as its sales director for Southeast Asia.

Patel brings with her an experience in technology and media industries. Some of the notable roles that she previously held covering APAC markets include director of Display Platform Strategy at Yahoo, president for programmatic services & product at dentsu, and managing director and Vice President for APAC at AppNexus. In her new role, Patel will oversee Quantcast’s presence across Australia, New Zealand and entire Asia.

Meanwhile, O’Connor also brings with him a working experience in technology and media industries. Prior to joining Quantcast, he was with IAB SEA and India as programmatic committee member. In his new role, O’Connor will now lead the sales team in Australia and New Zealand whilst reporting to Patel.

Moreover, Vijaratnam also brings his expertise in technology and media. Before joining Quantcast, he was a head of programmatic at technology company Oath. In his new role, Vijaratnam will lead the sales teams in Southeast Asia to develop the company’s presence in the region and will also report to Patel.

Konrad Feldman, CEO at Quantcast, said that they are looking forward to continue the company’s breakthrough in digital advertising as they establish this strong leadership team and relationships with brands and agencies across these regions.

Patel said, “It’s both an exciting and interesting time to expand my remit to include Australia and New Zealand. The region here is incredibly dynamic, with new privacy legislation, expanded legislative powers for both the ACCC and ACMA to keep the tech giants in check, and explosive growth in CTV and retail media, as well as volatile consumer behaviour post-COVID.”

O’Connor added that he’s thrilled to take the new role in the company whilst looking forward to lead the company’s sales team in its transformational phase.

Meanwhile, Vijaratnam commends Southeast Asia’s vibrant digital economy and its huge opportunities for further growth which makes him excited to expand their presence in the region by delivering more value to clients.

Quantcast focuses on programmatic advertising using its patented AI-powered audience platform to provide rich consumer insights, reach audiences, and drive performance and business outcomes for brands, agencies, and publishers.

Singapore – Global social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company Digimind has appointed Josh Drasta as its new general manager, APAC. 

In the new role, Drasta will be working on growing Digimind’s team and clients in the APAC region with best-in-class social media intelligence and monitoring solutions for the company’s APAC clientele.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Drasta shared his excitement over the new role. “Be it an SDR role, closing the deals, managing accounts, caring for customers’ success, generating insights out of data, or proposing new marketing strategies – I have touched pretty much every side of the roles of our team. This makes me very excited to be hands-on across these areas, get a feel for the business, and find avenues to expand our activities,” he said.

Prior to joining Digimind, Drasta held the sales lead role at Google, where he helped increase its advertising business and product adoption growth by educating, and promoting solutions to its customers, amongst other responsibilities.

Talking about his experience at Google, he shared that the role gave him the chance to work alongside incredibly talented people and on challenging projects such as working with Google’s highest potential agencies and their C-suite, as well as with business owners of the EMEA region’s most promising businesses.

He added, “At the same time, I was very intrigued about the opportunity to help to grow Digimind and Onclusive in the APAC region at a very special time, given the integration and the future product roadmap. The size and operations of Google and Digimind & Onclusive cannot be compared, but fundamentally, the goal is the same – delight the customers, push the limits of what’s possible to deliver with our products, and grow the team. This is exactly what is close to my heart, and I am very excited to make this my [day-to-day] activity.”

Moreover, he said that the experience at Google gave him the opportunity to learn, adapt, A/B test, and execute a plethora of projects, which he will be bringing forth to his new team at Digimind.

Drasta was also previously a sales director for APAC at consumer insights platform Linkfluence. He also has a wide experience in business development and marketing from companies such as Isentia, Socialbakers, and Groupe PSA.

Last year, Digimind onboarded media monitoring company Onclusive with the goal of delivering a complete suite of market-leading global media monitoring, measurement, and management solutions to PR and communications teams.

Bangkok, Thailand – Nissan has announced the promotion of Isao Sekiguchi as president of Nissan in the ASEAN region. The appointment is targeted to transform Nissan’s business in the region in accordance with its long-term vision, Nissan Ambition 2030.

Currently, Sekiguchi holds the regional vice president of marketing and sales, for Nissan’s ASEAN region and president of Nissan Motor Thailand roles. In the new role, he will oversee Nissan’s operations in the ASEAN region while continuing his current role at Nissan Motor Thailand.

Sekiguchi will likewise oversee the Japanese automaker’s business performance and brand development in 22 markets, including the ten ASEAN member states, and manage all functions in ASEAN. This includes manufacturing, purchasing, supply chain management, research and development, marketing, sales, and other supporting functions. 

He will also be responsible for driving Nissan’s ASEAN growth strategy, which includes positioning Nissan as a leader in the era of electrified mobility.

Sekiguchi brings with him more than 20 years of diverse international experience in the automotive sector. He joined Nissan in 2014 as managing director for Nissan North Africa and Egypt and has served as president director of Nissan Motor Indonesia since 2018. 

Prior to Nissan, he worked with a major Japanese trading house, Sumitomo Corporation, with experience in leading and managing automotive companies based in the US, Germany, and Slovakia.

“We are confident that Sekiguchi-san will lead our ASEAN business to sustainable and profitable growth with his deep understanding of the ASEAN markets and his proven leadership. Nissan aims to continue providing value beyond mobility to customers and society in this region, as well as to lay a solid foundation for long-term growth,” said Junichi Endo, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Japan-ASEAN, at Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

Sekiguchi’s appointment will be effective on April 1, 2023.

Hong Kong – The Hong Kong-headquartered global news company South China Morning Post has announced the appointment of Sophia Yu as the new managing director of its magazine division, SCMP Hearst. 

Yu currently serves as senior vice president and publisher of SCMP Hearst, overseeing the brand development, business strategy and editorial direction of all of the division’s lifestyle media brands. She first joined SCMP in 2011 as director of advertising and marketing solutions and moved to SCMP Hearst in 2013 as general manager and publisher. 

Prior to SCMP, she previously held both in-house and agency positions at different companies, having acquired more than 15 years of APAC strategy, sales, marketing and advertising experience across Hong Kong, Greater China, and other Asia markets.

“Sophia is one of Hong Kong’s most experienced and knowledgeable leaders in women’s magazines and lifestyle brands today. I am confident that her strong strategic planning, management, and people leadership skills will take our magazine brands to new heights,” said Catherine So, chief executive officer of SCMP Group.

Yu succeeds Josephine Chan, who led SCMP Hearst for the past 35 years. Under Chan’s leadership, SCMP Hearst has grown to operate five renowned lifestyle media brands in Hong Kong, including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s BAZAAR, Esquire, and ELLE Men.

“Josephine is a well-respected leader in Hong Kong’s lifestyle media industry. We are grateful for her leadership and commitment to SCMP Hearst over the past 35 years. We appreciate the role she has played in driving our magazine business forward and wish her a well-deserved retirement,” said So.

Previously, SCMP has also appointed Kevin Huang, formerly the managing director for Hong Kong at Carousell, as its chief operating officer.

Singapore – Global marketing and advertising agency dentsu has announced the creation of a new cluster for Southeast Asia, alongside the appointment of a team of veteran industry leaders. The newly formed SEA cluster will include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The new appointees at dentsu are Sanjay Bhasin, now CEO of SEA; Prakash Kamdar, now CEO of clients and solutions SEA; and Bharti Agrawal​, CFO of SEA. The three will lead the fast-growing market for the network in the region. 

Prior to the new role, Bhasin was CEO of Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam at dentsu. He is a veteran of the industry with 30 years of experience across APAC and SEA region.

Speaking about his new appointment, Bhasin said, “Personally and professionally, I have also known Prakash and Bharti for several decades and we have built an exceptional chemistry during the years of working together. I could not ask for a better, more collaborative and talented team to embark on this new and exciting era together with.”

Meanwhile, Kamdar brings with him 27 years of expertise in digital marketing and digital transformation and has a strong track record in client-centricity and creating transformative solutions. He joined the digital industry back in 1997 and has been CEO of Singapore and Indoniesia at dentsu.

“I have played various different roles at dentsu in the last 11 years, however my deep love and passion has always been for using the combined power of creativity, design, data, media, and technology to create transformative solutions that help businesses and brands achieve their growth and good ambitions.” 

He also shared his excitement over working with Bhasin, Agrawal, and the rest of the agency’s SEA leaders to transform the fortunes of businesses and people’s lives through its integrated growth solutions.

Agrawal, similarly, is a proven leader with over 20 years of extensive financial experience together with operational, commercial and M&A expertise in listed and private organisations across the UK, Brazil, and SEA. 

Rob Gilby, CEO of APAC at dentsu, also commented, “It’s well documented that SEA is experiencing exponential growth and tremendous transformation. Aligning with this is a natural progression for the business and will support significant investment in and commitment to our people, our clients, our partners and our competitive capabilities in this important growth region.”

Most recently, dentsu International has expanded its partnership with foodpanda to support its media transformation journey and bring closer collaboration across the markets of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.