Tag: Appointments

Malaysia – ​Malaysian-based telco Telekom Malaysia has appointed Krish Datta, former CEO for JAPAC and the Middle East at global data solution provider BackOffice Associates, to the newly created role of executive vice president of digital services. 

With over 34 years of technology industry experience, Datta has built and led several enterprise technology-based businesses across ASEAN, India, Japan, and Australia, as well as the Middle East. Aside from his role at BackOffice Associates, Datta has also held leadership positions at SAP APAC for over 16 years, where he established the company in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. He also went on to hold the position of president of SAP Southeast Asia, where he is responsible for all aspects of the business from sales, marketing, sales operations, and presales, as well as partner and eco-system, amongst others.

In his new role, Datta will be bringing his deep expertise in building Telekom’s technology businesses, alongside a broad, diverse set of experiences and skills.

Commenting on his appointment, Datta said, “I am excited to join TM, for more than one reason. I love building sustainable tech businesses, and this opportunity to build a technology-focused team offers me the ability to create, from the inside, another reliable TM brand, a new identity for Enterprise Technology along with a scope to help a country I love.”

Meanwhile, Imri Mokhtar, Telekom’s group CEO, shared that in this new role, Datta will deepen their commitment and ability to enable their Enterprise and Public Sector customers’ digital transformation, as they help them improve and accelerate every area of their business with simplicity and confidence.

“Krish at the helm of our new digital services arm marks the start of an exciting new chapter for us. As our customers in the Enterprise and Public Sector space continue to build the future of business, he will help TM realise our opportunities in B2B digital services. I am excited to see what Krish and his team will deliver,” said Mokhtar.

Australia – Australian media company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has elevated Rebecca Ackland, former people and culture manager at SCA, to the new role of chief people and culture officer.

In her new role, Ackland will be working to align culture and change initiatives at SCA to deliver against its strategic objectives. She will be reporting directly to Grant Blackley, SCA’s CEO.

Commenting on her elevation, Ackland said: “I feel privileged to work closely with Grant and the Leadership Team, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue to champion our award-winning culture, ensuring we place our people and our values at the core of what we do every day.”

Meanwhile, Blackley noted that Ackland is an exceptional executive who has built an amazing team of effective and passionate executives at SCA. 

“During her time as people and culture manager, Rebecca has shaped our people strategy, led change across all departments, and developed a deep understanding of the key business drivers and strategic challenges, as our business progresses its digital transformation. She has a clear vision and uses her expertise to help our leaders take ownership and drive change successfully,” said Blackley.

In February 2022, SCA has also announced the appointment of Lucia Elliott, former principal at marketing consultancy Creighton Ward, to be its new national trade marketing director. She was tasked to drive awareness and understanding of SCA’s total media portfolio.

Mumbai, India – Advertising agency TBWA\ India has appointed Amit Kekre, former national strategy head at advertising agency DDB Mudra Group, to be its new chief strategy officer.

With 23 years of industry experience, Amit has worked with agencies globally, including Lowe, JWT, and Ogilvy, as well as Grey, and McCann in India, Malaysia, and Australia. During his recent stint at DDB Mudra, Kekre led marketing, brand, and business strategies for the group’s clients, namely Diageo, Pepsi, Unilever, and Future Group, as well as Godrej, amongst others. He has also championed the group’s diversity agenda – and has been pivotal in establishing diversity as a key strategic growth capability for the group. 

Moreover, Kekre is the chairperson for the India chapter of Open Pride, Omnicom’s ERG for the LGBTIQ+ community at the workplace, and will continue to lead these chapters from TBWA.

Kekre said, “We live in times when the question of growth cannot afford to be linear, it must be discontinuous. So must be the ways to achieve it, we need a fundamental shake-up from comfort zones – of how we see our brands, our businesses, the consumers they serve and the world they must create. No better place than TBWA, the @DISRUPTION company to make this happen.”

Meanwhile, Govind Pandey, TBWA\ Inda’s CEO, shared that Kekre is an exceptional leader and an impressive strategist, and his ambition to discover and understand goes well beyond the books, tools, and processes.

“Amit will be responsible for developing and executing an elevated strategic approach across our planning department while working closely with the agency’s portfolio of brands,” said Pandey.

Malaysia — In its recent Annual General Meeting, the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA) has appointed Claudian Navin Stanislaus as its new president, and Javed Jafri as the association’s new vice president.

Stanislau and Javed will be leading MAA’s newly-elected council members from Coca Cola Far East, GrabTaxi Holdings, Heineken Malaysia, Mondelez Malaysia Sales, Nestle Products, P&G, and many more.

Stanislaus is also the head of communication and consumer marketing for BABA PRODUCTS. Meanwhile, Jafri is the media and digital hub lead for Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos from Unilever Holdings.

On the importance of the association, Stanislaus said that the MAA has always played an advocacy role on behalf of advertisers in Malaysia, engaging the various ministries and regulatory bodies, as well as fellow industry stakeholders; from media owners, media and creative agencies and digital players, to ensure that the channels of communication and cooperation are always active in the pursuit for a conducive environment for brands to thrive without compromising consumers’ rights.

He added, “The MAA will be reaching out to other trade associations too, and seek opportunities to work together on initiatives that can benefit the industry, especially the SME sector which is critical to the growth of the economy.”

Sydney, Australia – Media agency Initiative has appointed Daniela Rocchi to the new role of head of partnership for the Sydney team, and Justin ArIt to the new role of head of partnership for the Melbourne team. The move comes after Initiative restructured its partnerships department, aimed at bolstering its leadership team.

Rocchi’s immediate remit in Initiative is to lead the investment and partnerships across the Sydney market, bringing a genuine passion for investment to deliver the best results for clients. Having spent a decade at Initiative, Rocchi has been a stalwart in the agency’s transformation diving into every aspect of the business and proving herself to be a brilliant client adviser and an important partner to media vendors.

Meanwhile, Arlt brings his leadership skills to the Melbourne business. Up to date, he has been intimately involved in numerous Melbourne pitch wins and instrumental in rolling out several key internal processes.

Both will report directly to Simon Reid, Initiative’s national head of partnerships.

Commenting on her new role, Rocchi said, “I could not be happier to be moving into a role that I am extremely passionate about. What I love most about this role is that I will be building my industry relationships into strong partnerships and training our workforce whilst keeping the Initiative culture at the forefront of everything I do.”

Meanwhile, Arlt also commented: “I’m particularly excited to be working through the next evolution of our partnerships learning and development program which will help our teams build stronger relationships with our partners to deliver more meaningful results for our clients.”

Reid shared that given Initiative’s current rapid growth rate, now is the perfect time to restructure their partnerships team, providing huge benefits to their existing clients and allowing for continued agency growth.

“I am extremely proud of both Daniela and Justin and the fact we can promote within is a testament to the tremendous talent we have at Initiative. Both are masters of their craft, high-level negotiators, have built strong senior relationships in their respective markets and have been delivering year on year results for our clients. They both have extensive experience on a broad range of categories and will build formidable teams to benefit our clients,” he said.

Mumbai, India — Kulfi Collective’s global animation and motion design vertical, Post Office Studios, has announced a series of hires to its innovative and dynamic crew of designers, animators, visual effects artists and new media tech experts. The appointments are Kushal Bhor and Prasad Kelkar to the position of creative director; Joydeep Chowdhury to associate creative director; Taher Merchant as lead of brand partnerships; and Kedar Thapar as executive producer. Meanwhile, Aunnesha Sen has been elevated to executive producer.

Bhor is multi-talented and diversely experienced in animation, 3D design, videography, visual design, video production and video animation. He has previously worked as a creative head at a boutique production house. As part of the creative director’s panel at Post Office, he will not only lead projects but also nurture upcoming talents at the studio.

Meanwhile, Kelkar has also been appointed a creative director. His role will see him focus on providing top-notch design solutions, animation, and motion design projects to clients. He will oversee the work of both internal and external artists, manage client feedback and coordinate with creative and post-producers to ensure timely delivery as per KULFI standards. Prior to Post Office Studios, Kelkar’s 2-year stint at 4AM Worldwide has seen him head its motion design vertical.

On the other hand, Chowdhury has a strong background in the media production industry, having worked for 10 years. At Post Office Studios, he will oversee art direction and elevate the creativity quotient across various projects. Previously, Chowdhury was with Sealine Productions as a creative art director.

With over six years of experience managing, Merchant has led teams across multiple sectors at notable companies like Uber and Studio Dialogbox. Driven by his eagerness and genuine passion for business management and scaling organisations to greater heights, Merchant will help formulate and execute strategies to grow brand partnerships across multiple industry sectors in collaboration with the Post Office Studios’ creative and operations team.

Meanwhile, Thapar has a background of twelve years in commercials and digital video content production. His role sees him manage and support teams on multiple projects and coordinate with the creative team and production team to close projects. Adept at a solution-focused approach, Thapar leverages his vast experience to manage risk, solve problems and overcome challenges on the fly.

Lastly, Sen, who was previously the creative producer at Post Office Studios steps up to her new role with an experience of close to a decade in the field.

Shirley D’Costa, CBO of Kulfi Collective, said, “Over the last 2 years, we’ve seen a staggering increase in both interest and demand in the animation and immersive content space, both within India and globally. We are excited to strengthen our motion design capabilities with this incredible team of talented hires while we continue to deliver world-class content as a global new media studio.”

Simultaneously, Aditya Tawde, co-founder and CCO of Post Office Studios, commented, “We feel it’s a great combination of hiring a new set of talented people while upscaling the existing people, and we are looking forward to working with them. The biggest challenge in any growing startup organisation is to scale, and with a team of these bright minds, Post Office Studios will definitely set a new global benchmark in the motion design space.”

Singapore — Reserve Bank of India’s authorised Prepaid Payment Instruments provider and fintech start-up True Balance has announced multiple senior appointments. Financial services veteran Souparno Bagchi is named as the new chief operating officer (COO) while fintech expert Himanshu Jaggi is named as its new principal product manager. The expanded leadership team will oversee the development and advancement of financial products and services that aim to ‘Enable Finance for Every Indian’.

Bagchi brings with him over two decades of global experience in financial services through various leadership positions at Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, and Tata Consultancy Services.

The newly appointed COO will lead the operations of True Balance to amplify customer value while ensuring the company’s robust growth in lending and payments services. Bagchi will be responsible for establishing and broadening True Balance’s capabilities as a neobank for India’s Next Billion people.

Meanwhile, as the new principal product manager, Jaggi will spearhead product innovation and development by employing a data-driven approach. Prior to joining True Balance, Jaggi worked with social media giant Meta Facebook and PayPal. Jaggi brings expertise in product, data science and a profound understanding of consumer behaviour.

Commenting on the appointments, Charlie Lee, CEO and founder of True Balance, said that as per the latest joint report by TransUnion CIBIL and Google, the small ticket personal loan segment in India grew 23 times in the last four years, and the overall digital loans market is predicted to grow to $350b by 2023.

Lee added, “This is a further endorsement of the opportunity and the market we at True Balance have been catering to. India has made significant progress in bridging the digital divide. Bagchi and Jaggi will further strengthen the team and our endeavour to achieve our mission of making finance available for all.”

Meanwhile, Bagchi said, “The company has expanded the credit coverage frontiers to millions of people and has the vantage point of deeply understanding the next billion people in India and their financial needs and aspirations. Therefore, True Balance is uniquely placed to establish itself as the most trusted Neo Bank for the next billion segments. I am super stoked to be part of True Balance as we continue to innovate and develop our offerings and create greater impact for people across India.”

Simultaneously, Jaggi shared, “I am happy to join True Balance in their mission to provide a financial platform for the next generation who are unserved by the traditional credit institutions during this pivotal time. It will surely be an exciting journey. And with my experience and skills, I look forward to building world-class products for this target audience with a unique vision and innovative approach.”

Singapore – Global marketing agency VMLY&R has elevated Camellia Tan, former managing director of network development for Asia at VMLY&R, to step into the newly created role of chief network growth officer for Asia. 

In her new role, Tan will be responsible for the planning, design, and execution of VMLY&R’s growth strategy for Asia, focusing on new and existing markets against key network client opportunities. She will also be ensuring the agency’s preparedness to operationally support core and new clients’ business – to achieve growth targets by building, buying, partnering for, and integrating capabilities.

Tan has played an instrumental role in network development since joining Y&R in 2010, and then VML in 2013. She grew the network’s Caltex remit, from just regional brand AOR to becoming an integrated lead agency, including driving digital transformation covering data, marketing automation, and experience design. She has also helped to integrate WPP’s foremost commerce agency Geometry into VMLY&R by bringing complementary capabilities together and creating market-leading offerings for shared clients – including subscription commerce, data-driven marketing, and service design.

Commenting on her elevation, Tan said, “Growing and building the VMLY&R network has always been close to my heart. Whether it’s helping to grow clients’ businesses or ramping up capabilities through integration or right-fit acquisition, I look forward to building on our current momentum to help drive the agency’s continued expansion and relevance.”

Meanwhile, Yi-Chung Tay, VMLY&R’s CEO for Asia, shared that the agency has enjoyed robust growth over the last three years because of its relentless focus on integrating, building out and acquiring market-leading capabilities to meet its clients’ business needs, and having a great culture for like-minded innovators and marketers to collaborate and grow together. 

“With Camy having been in the thick of this growth, she’s the ideal choice to maintain this momentum, continuing our focus on growth and our ever-expanding capabilities,” said Tay.

New Zealand – Consumer brands giant Unilever has elevated Cameron Heath, former general manager at Unilever Baltics, to be its new managing director for New Zealand.

Heath joins the New Zealand team after seven years with Unilever. Aside from his previous role as the general manager in Unilever Baltics, Heath has spent four years as the company’s marketing director of food & beverages in Prague, during which time he built a passion for brands with a purpose such as Hellmans and Lipton. Prior to joining Unilever, he has also spent seven years with Procter and Gamble (P&G), spanning a number of customer development and category strategy roles, including time working in the New Zealand market.

In his new role, Heath will bring his extensive marketing and category management experience, as well as his passion for delivering superior product experiences that generate value for people and business.

Heath, who is originally from Sydney, started the role remotely from Australia in November 2021, and has joined his team on the ground in New Zealand last 20 April 2022.

Commenting on his appointment, Heath said that he is thrilled to take the reins of the New Zealand business, which has consistently delivered strong results under the leadership of Nick Bangs. 

He further shared that beyond their environmental footprint, he is also deeply passionate about the role businesses can play in creating a fair, diverse, and equitable world, and he is looking forward to better understanding the melting pot of cultures that makes up New Zealand and finding opportunities for them to scale change.

“I understand first-hand the pressure retailers and consumers are facing as we deal with supply chain disruption and increased cost of production across the board. I am committed to building constructive relationships with our retail partners and consumers to ensure the grocery sector is fair for all,” he said.

This elevation comes after Heath’s predecessor Nick Bangs moved to Sydney to take on the role of general manager of home, beauty and personal care at Unilever ANZ.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Hypefast, the house of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia, has appointed Mohammed Alabsi, former senior vice president of engineering at e-commerce platform Bukalapak, to be its new chief technology officer.

In his new role, Alabsi will be joining the senior leadership team, and will be managing Hypefast’s tech team, focusing on developing technology to support the development of the company’s end-to-end tech-driven retail ecosystem.

Alabsi is a seasoned technology leader with experience in the US, Asia, and the Middle East. He brings over 17 years of experience in the technology industry, with a proven track record of building AWS services powering the infrastructure of tech companies worldwide. He was also a founding member of Amazon’s advertising and B2B e-commerce businesses. In addition, Mohammed is active in the startup scene, advising and investing in startups across SEA and the US.

Commenting on his appointment, Alabsi said that the opportunity to build and accelerate technology innovation for Hypefast gained his attention from the start, especially the idea of developing ultra-relevant tech solutions for the e-commerce native brands in SEA based on real problems and challenges they are facing when managing their own portfolio brands. 

“We want to use this to bring innovation and effective solutions to the brands. I also look forward to building Hypefast’s new best-in-class tech team and together taking Hypefast one step closer to the company’s vision,” he added.

Meanwhile, Achmad Alkatiri, Hypefast’s founder and CEO, commented that they are excited to welcome Alabsi to their leadership team, as his diverse experience in tech makes him distinctively suited to drive innovation as Hypefast accelerates their tech-driven retail ecosystem and brings solutions to e-commerce native brands.

“His experience, combined with our best-in-class team in retail and e-commerce, will lead our continued investment in the leadership team for the industry and strengthen Hypefast’s commitment to super-charge the growth of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia,” said Alkatiri.