Tag: Leadership

Mumbai, India – BBH India, an advertising agency under Publicis Groupe, has appointed Himanshu Saxena, former executive vice president and head of integration at McCann Worldgroup India, to be its new chief operating officer and managing director.

In his new role, Saxena will be responsible for BBH India’s developing talent, organisational tools, and new services, as well as steering these to acquire future-facing businesses.

Saxena brings over 29 years of experience across the communication spectrum, including advertising, marketing and sales, brand management, digital and social, and PR, as well as design, and market research. He has helmed country and multi-office leadership for some of South Asia’s leading organisations, including Lowe, McCann, Trikaya Grey, JWT, and Edelman, as well as IMRB, and Reliance Jio.

Commenting on his appointment, Saxena said, “I am both excited and honoured to join BBH. With its legacy of creating stunning work that has transformed not only brands but also categories, BBH India is truly built for the modern age of marketing. I am looking forward to scaling this further and bringing my experience and a fresh perspective to leading such talented individuals and ambitious clients.”

Meanwhile, Dheeraj Sinha, CEO of Leo Burnett South Asia and chairman of BBH India, shared that BBH India, with its legacy of modern, creative and effective solutions that are well-entrenched in the modern Indian zeitgeist, has built a reputation as a creative firepower in the country. 

“I am delighted to welcome Himanshu onboard. A talented leader known for his deep client relationships, his commitment to business innovation, and his operational acumen, Himanshu embodies the black sheep and zag philosophy that will further fuel this brilliant creative engine,” said Sinha.

In September 2022, BBH India also elevated Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon to become the new executive creative directors. Both Gurnani and Menon were previously senior creative directors, and will continue to report to BBH India’s CCO and CEO, Russell Barrett.

Singapore – Global digital media agency M&C Saatchi Performance has elevated Melissa Yik to country director for Singapore, and Roshat Adnani to managing partner for APAC.

Yik has been with M&C Saatchi Performance for eight years. During her previous role as an account director, she has been responsible for driving digital performance across brands including Amazon Shopping, Beam Suntory, and beIN SPORTS, as well as Grab, and Zalora. In her new role, Yik will continue to steer accounts while guiding the agency’s Singapore office which acts as an important regional hub.

Meanwhile, Adnani has been with the agency for five years. He enters his new role three years after having been promoted to director of growth for APAC, which saw him responsible for managing the P&L across markets like India, Indonesia, and MENA, working across clients like Tinder, Myntra, Swiggy, Alodokter, and MPL, as well as Traveloka. In his new role, along with his existing responsibility, he will be taking care of maintaining the agency’s relationship with existing and new partners and overseeing financial operations.

Both roles will report directly to Kabeer Chaudhary, managing director for APAC at M&C Saatchi Performance.

Commenting on her new role, Yik said that back then, there were only 3 of them in the Singapore office and she is so proud today to be given a chance to lead the team of over 40 talented marketers to drive results for some of the agency’s biggest regional accounts. 

“I look forward to working even harder with our team of inspiring individuals, leveraging on our extensive ability to convert data insights into impactful media strategies for all our clients,” added Yik.

Meanwhile, Adnani also commented, “The next few years will be critical for not just the agency but for the industry as a whole and I am excited about working alongside Kabeer in navigating the changes.”

Chaudhary shared that the agency would not be where it is today without the digital expertise and the ability of Yik and Adnani to always go the extra mile for their clients and their team. 

“Their guidance and business acumen have driven our success making a real impact on our client portfolio and growth. We’re honoured to be able to promote talent that has grown within the agency and together with it,” said Chaudhary.

Australia – Search intelligence platform Captify has announced a new team expansion as part of bolstering its Australian operations. They include Chris Santoso as partner lead, Dan Kearney to lead operations in Melbourne, and Evan Taousanis to bolster client services.

Speaking about the new updates, Krish Raja, general manager for Australia at Captify said, “It’s all about timing. We’ve been in the Aussie market for nearly two years in its full scope now and it’s clear that there’s a huge appetite for a programmatic search intelligence product that can help to illuminate the mid-funnel.”

He added, “Agencies and publishers alike are crying out for privacy-safe activation techniques that leverage cookieless intent data right now, and we’re very excited to be a strong partner to both sides. Our main focus is to improve value creation on both the sell and buy sides of the ecosystem through our technologies.”

Meanwhile, Maddie Basso, head of sales at Captify, commented, “Being first to the table with our cookieless solutions last year gave us a good headstart to iron out some of the wrinkles that everyone must, and we’re now expanding at the right time. Aussie agencies such as Spark, Matterkind, Nunn, Carat, EssenceMediacom and OMD already work with us across their most forward-thinking brands to ensure that they’re in safe hands in a shifting data space. We’re looking forward to expand that support further into the latter part of this year.”

Singapore – Singapore-based social platform for sustainability, abillion, has appointed Laura Kantor, former marketing and sustainability director at foodpanda Singapore, to step into newly created role as vice president of marketing and growth. 

In her new role, Kantor will be responsible for abillion’s all brand marketing, creative, planning, strategy and growth activities. She will also be reporting directly into Vikas Garg, CEO and founder of abillion.

Kantor has over 13 years in marketing and strategy. During her six years at foodpanda Singapore, she grew the business over 100x, launched six business units, and grew the marketing team from 3 to 32 professionals. Passionate about driving change, Kantor is also well-known for spearheading foodpanda’s sustainability strategy across APAC, launching several initiatives which have transformed the Food & Beverage industry; saving billions of sets of cutlery; and becoming the first delivery company to ban the sale of shark fin.

Commenting on her new appointment, Kantor said, “I’m so excited to join Vikas and his incredible team at abillion and be part of such an exciting movement to mobilise communities to get together to save the world.”

Meanwhile, Garg noted, “Our goal is to become the world’s most impactful ecosystem for sustainability, helping consumers and entrepreneurs make choosing sustainably second nature for everyone. Whether you’re buying or selling on abillion’s marketplace, every transaction creates impact, saving lives, feeding the hungry and preserving nature. It’s a completely new blueprint for e-commerce, one that will allow all of us to eat, shop and live our way to a brighter future.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – IPG Mediabrands has appointed Elina Peek-Lantz, former head of digital strategy and planning at Maxis, to be its new managing director of Reprise, the global performance marketing agency within the Mediabrands network.

Peek-Lantz has 17 years of experience working with international teams in corporate and start-up environments as a highly qualified data-driven marketer. In her new role, she will be responsible for innovating Reprise’s product and service capabilities, and will be working in close collaboration with partner agencies UM and Initiative to drive the strategic direction of performance marketing, analytics, and technology channels across all clients. Peek-Lantz will also be reporting to the CEO of Mediabrands Malaysia, Bala Pomaleh.

Commenting on her new role, Peek-Lantz said, “I’m thrilled to join Mediabrands as we expand the Reprise footprint in Malaysia. The current market landscape has created great opportunities for brands to further amplify their online presence, and the Reprise framework of ‘Customer Flow’ is a perfect launch pad for any business looking to incorporate digital strategies and drive business growth. I look forward to expanding the Reprise service and product portfolio as we focus on creating a seamless customer journey for path to purchase.”

Meanwhile, Pomaleh shared that Peek-Lantz comes with deep knowledge of the changing nuances in their digital marketing ecosystem, and they have seen great strides in these new spaces and have been investing immensely in growth areas such as e-commerce, experience design, and performance content. 

“Elina’s role will have a significant influence over the success of our organisation as she works alongside our leadership teams at UM and Initiative to drive digital strategies and create a safe and responsible media environment across our portfolio of clients,” said Pomaleh.

Pippa Berlocher, president of Reprise APAC, noted, “I’m excited to have Elina join our business. Given her entrepreneurial background and experience, I know she will bring great energy and capabilities that both our team and clients will benefit from. Malaysia remains a key market for us in the APAC region, and I’m looking forward to partnering closely with Elina to elevate the craft excellence within our business and drive growth for both our clients and Mediabrands.”

Singapore – Yahoo has announced key appointments in its APAC team to bolster its adtech business in the region. They include Matt Farringtona as APAC head of partnerships and investment, Sandra Lin as APAC head of DSP strategy, Kenneth Koh as head of DSP for SEA, Terence Lim as business lead for SEA, and Natalie Phang as data and insights strategist for SEA.

Farrington will drive Yahoo’s investment strategy in the region and oversee commercial trading relationships with agencies and clients. He will lead the development and delivery of Yahoo’s trading deal models in APAC, generating value for agencies and clients across Yahoo’s best-in-class unified ad tech stack and omnichannel platforms.

Meanwhile, Lin will oversee the strategy for Yahoo’s ad platforms and unified ad tech stack, focusing on growing product adoption across the region. She will lead regional multi-discipline initiatives across product, positioning, and partnerships.

Koh will lead the demand-side Platform (DSP) team for SEA. His remit will include managing Yahoo’s growing platform specialist team that helps partners in Singapore and SEA realise their full potential through Yahoo’s buying solutions powered by its omnichannel, unified ad tech stack.

On the other hand, Lim will work closely with partners and agencies to help brands future-proof their marketing strategies and achieve their business goals through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack.

Lastly, Phang will leverage her data strategy experience built across APAC and the EU, to help Yahoo’s agency and brand clients in SEA maximise their marketing investment for the cookieless world.

Paul Sigaloff, vice president and head of APAC at Yahoo, commented, “We are pleased to welcome these new talents to the Yahoo APAC team as we enter a phase of accelerated growth for Yahoo’s ad tech business in the region. Their collective expertise and experience will be invaluable to help create value for our clients and partners in APAC.” 

He added, “With a high-performance team and our market-leading ad tech capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to help brands solve their business objectives and take advantage of new opportunities in APAC’s dynamic digital landscape.”

The slew of appointments follows a series of appointments done this year, including Sebastian Graham as director of native, as well as John McNerneypromoted to senior director of platforms for APAC and Dan Richardson promoted to head of data for APAC.

Sydney, Australia – Jessica White, a renowned digital and performance expert, has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of Reprise Australia, effective November 1 this year. This adds significant firepower to Reprise’s capabilities as it continues to build its global reputation as a full service digitally-led performance agency.

Reporting directly to CEO Mediabrands Australia Mark Coad, White also takes an immediate place on Mediabrands’ executive leadership team.

She has worked in the media industry for nearly 15 years – both agency and client side – the majority of which has been spent leading the development and implementation of data-led transformation in media and brand communications.

White has held senior roles both internationally and locally within Mediabrands, recently returning to Australia from NYC while maintaining her global head of activation role with Initiative. Prior to her role as head of activation, she was head of data and technology for AKA Kinesso NYC, driving the commercial data and programmatic strategy across the business.

Speaking on her appointment, she said, “Increasingly I hear clients wanting more accountability for their media spend, so better connecting media to business outcomes will be an area of focus. In partnership with our agencies, Reprise is uniquely positioned to drive the brand and performance cohesion needed to achieve this.”

She added, “It’s an exciting time to be in the industry and I can’t wait to develop my team’s skills and capabilities to deliver truly outstanding work for our clients.”

With her CEO appointment, White takes over Andy Holford who stepped into the role of interim CEO earlier this year.

Coad said, “I am delighted Jessica is joining Reprise, as a leader I just know she is going to shine and under her watch Reprise will continue to go from strength to strength. The business is pumping; the team are enthused and the clients are enjoying some truly wonderful work. I look forward to spending the next few months working alongside Jess as we transition into a new era of Reprise’s history.”

Japan – Dentsu Creative has announced key members of its global leadership team, including Andrea Terrassa, the new global chief operating officer, Iván Czwan Altobelli, the new global chief people officer, Julie Scelzo, the new global clients chief creative officer, and Jon Dupuis, the new global clients president.

Terrassa has acted as the chief operating officer of Dentsu Creative Americas since 2021, where she was instrumental in the organisational and transformation efforts of moving from 11 agency brands to three, and joined dentsu International in 2018 as chief operating officer for 360i. She will work closely with the global operations teams across all areas of the business, including Media and CXM, led by dentsu International’s Global Chief Operating Officer, Nnenna Ilomechina, to help achieve the business’ ambition of offering Horizontal Creativity to clients and being the world’s most integrated creative network.

Meanwhile, Altobelli will oversee all Human Resource functions, including an ambitious talent acquisition strategy. He joined dentsu International in 2021 from Accenture Interactive, where he played a key role in delivering its creative and digital agency integration for agencies including Karmarama, Rothco, Droga5, Creative Drive, MXM, and PacificLink.

In her new role, Scelzo will ensure creative excellence for global clients focusing on delivering modern creative ideas that Create Culture, Change Society and Invent the Future. Since 2018 Scelzo has served as global executive creative director for DentsuMB’s American Express business. Before that, Scelzo spent several years as a creative director at Leo Burnett, FCB, and Meta. Prior to joining Dentsu, she was the executive creative director of Pandora Music. Using this experience, Scelzo will look to offer enhanced content marketing, entertainment and IP creative strategies, as well as ensure creativity delivers horizontally for the client, from content to commerce, media to CXM.

And lastly, Dupuis will be working with Dentsu Creative’s leadership teams globally to ensure that clients are provided with powerful integrated solutions to achieve bold new executions that connect with the largest possible audience in contextually relevant ways. The key to this will be using data and technology to connect the right global talent around the right global client briefs and build teams that reflect the modern world. Dupuis has been with dentsu since 2017, when he joined as global managing director for dentsuMB and was promoted to global president and CEO in 2019.

Together, they are tasked with building and sustaining a culture of creativity, through operational excellence, attracting, and retaining world-class talent and ensuring seamless collaboration, to ensure that clients achieve the full potential of ‘Modern Creativity’ – Dentsu Creative’s expanded capabilities and bold ambition.

Fred Levron, Dentsu International’s chief creative officer, commented, “We are on a journey to design the creative network of the future. Andrea is without doubt one of the best when it comes to engineering modern structures and processes, while Iván is top in the game to onboard the best next generation of talent. In Julie and Jon, we have [a] unique driving force, who together will deliver the most compelling offer to meet the needs of, and attract more, global clients. They say, ‘If you don’t like change, you will not like irrelevance’, and we are building for change.”

Singapore – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe in SEA has appointed Sujith Rao, former managing director of Reprise Digital, to be its new managing director of Publicis Commerce. This move aims to accelerate the Groupe’s commerce offering in the region and further unlock client growth. 

In his new role, Rao, who will be based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will be working with Publicis Groupe’s network of agencies and practice areas across SEA. He will also be orchestrating a deeper connection between the Groupe’s commerce strategy and solutions with its creative, media, performance, and production capabilities, delivering data-driven end-to-end consumer journeys that are optimised towards sales and business growth for the clients. Rao will be reporting to Ian Loon, who recently expanded his duties as chief transformation officer for Publicis Groupe SEA.

Aside from his previous role at Reprise Digital, Rao also held roles at Travelguru.com, Cbazarr.com, and IPG Mediabrands. He brings a wealth of experience with a proven track record of growing new revenue streams through the launch of innovative products and solutions, rooted in data and analytics. 

Commenting on his appointment, Rao said, “I am excited and honoured by the opportunity to work across multiple markets, brands, and capabilities, driving the evolution of Publicis Groupe’s commerce offering in Southeast Asia. Our global investments, locally relevant solutions, and the Groupe’s Power of One ethos are the perfect framework for crafting bespoke digital commerce innovations, and I am ready to get started on this journey with our clients.”

Meanwhile, Loon shared, “We are delighted to have Sujith captain and grow our highly ambitious Publicis Commerce journey. His credentials as a solutions architect, problem solver, and people connector will enable the Groupe’s ongoing transformation agenda while delivering innovative commerce solutions that marry brand building and conversion for our clients across the region.”

Melbourne, Australia – Australia-based integrated communications agency Icon Agency has appointed Simon Hobbs to step into its newly created role of executive director of digital.

In this new role, Hobbs will be leading Icon’s digital department with a focus on new business development and optimising the team’s processes and systems. 

Hobbs brings significant management experience, having previously grown multiple teams across agency and government. He previously consulted for the New South Wales government for two years, focussing on the complex content platform that is the nsw.gov.au website.

Commenting on his appointment, Hobbs said that Icon is in a fantastic position that aligns with his passions, and with recent and ongoing growth, there’s a great opportunity here for him to make a difference and help the team do their best work.

“Icon’s commitment to innovation is a real drawcard for me. We’re keeping one eye on the horizon to see what new technological opportunities are coming, like AI and the Metaverse,” he added.

Meanwhile, Chris Dodds, Icon’s managing director of digital, noted, “Adding Simon to our team reflects our commitment to constant improvement. In this next phase of growth his expertise and leadership will help our team operate at peak performance. Simon’s extensive experience with government projects strongly complements our strength and history of government work. We’re excited to add his knowledge and skills to our growing team.”

Joanne Painter, Icon’s group managing director, said “We continue to grow quickly thanks to the support and trust of our clients. Senior appointments like Simon strengthen our capabilities across all disciplines and allow us to offer multi-faceted, end-to-end projects.”