Tag: Managing Director

Singapore – Penta Group, the global communications and stakeholder solutions firm, has announced the appointment of Deborah Giam as the new managing director of Singapore. With her extensive experience and industry expertise, she will be playing a pivotal role in driving growth and delivering exceptional client service in the region. 

Giam joins with a remarkable track record in strategic communications, public affairs, and stakeholder engagement across various industries. The company says her understanding of the Singaporean and regional market, coupled with strong leadership skills, makes her the perfect fit for this key position.

Previously with Zeno Singapore as the client services director, she successfully led numerous high-profile campaigns for clients across various sectors, including corporate, finance, healthcare and technology. 

As the new MD for Singapore, Giam will be leading strategic initiatives, overseeing a talented team of professionals dedicated to delivering innovative communication and stakeholder solutions. She will play a crucial role in strengthening Penta Group’s presence in Singapore and further expanding its client base.

“We are thrilled to have Deborah join our team as the Managing Director of Singapore,” said Shawn Balakrishnan, partner for Asia Pacific. “Having her lead the Singapore team is the next step for our pursuit of continued excellence. With her expertise, we are confident in our ability to drive growth and deliver outstanding results for our clients in the region.” 

Giam expressed her excitement about joining Penta Group, stating, “I am honoured to be a part of Penta Group and lead the Singapore office. The company has an excellent reputation for delivering impactful communication strategies, and I’m excited to be able to create and embrace new opportunities for its success. I look forward to working with the talented team here and contributing to the firm’s continued success.”

Penta was established in September 2022 following the merger of market-leading firms Ballast Research, Hamilton Place Strategies, Flag Media Analytics, alva, Gotham Research Group, and Decode_M. Following this latest acquisition, Penta is now comprising over 300 professionals located across New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Vail, London, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Singapore – Global recommendation platform Outbrain has named Amrita de la Peña as its new managing director for Asia-Pacific. In her new role, de la Peña will be responsible for expanding the company’s offerings for agencies, brand advertisers, and publishers in the region.

Prior to joining Outbrain, she was recently the first general manager for Sprout Social in APAC. She also spent six years as the head of global brands for JAPAC at Twitter.

She brings with her over 25 years of experience in the digital marketing, media and advertising space.

Speaking of her new role, she said, “I am excited to join Outbrain at a time when the company is poised for significant growth in the APAC region. More and more marketers are understanding the real importance of trusted, premium content environments and looking to drive measurable outcomes and deeper engagement with audiences. I look forward to helping more brands, advertisers, and publishers leverage Outbrain’s suite of innovative technology and create even more value for all sides.”

Meanwhile, Alexander Erlmeier, chief revenue officer at Outbrain, commented: “Amrita is a seasoned leader with a track record of success in the digital marketing and advertising space. We are thrilled to have her on board as we continue to innovate our solutions to better serve brands, advertisers, and publishers. With her expertise and leadership, we are confident that we can build even more strong partnerships and deliver innovative solutions for our clients.”

De la Peña’s appointment follows recent appointments within Outbrain’s C-suite lineup namely Yonatan Maman as chief technology officer and Andraz Tori as chief product officer.

Australia – Creative agency Host/Havas has announced the promotion of Anthony Moore as its managing director to continue being hands-on with the agency’s clients including Reckitt, Tourism Fiji, and the Australian Federal Police, whilst expanding his responsibilities more broadly for the agency.

In 2015, Moore joined the agency as its managing partner. He became an integral part of its projects including the creation of Australia’s second most popular podcast for the Australian Federal Police. He also contributed to the win of the hotly contested Tourism Fiji pitch and helped Air New Zealand become Australia’s most trusted brand five years in a row.

James Wright, chief executive officer at Havas Creative Network, said that Moore has been a crucial player in the agency’s success, from developing strong client relationships, supporting the delivery of their iconic campaigns, and building a fun culture. 

Meanwhile, Moore said, “I’m really proud of everything we have achieved together, particularly over the past few years and the culture we continue to build at Host/Havas. The team here are incredibly talented and certainly make my job easier every day.”

Host/Havas specialises in blending creativity and technology to solve real business problems, from brand thinking and design to innovation, CX, tech consulting, and digital development.

Singapore – Global, performance-driven content leader Green Park Content has announced the promotion of Fe Husaint as managing director for APAC to strengthen the agency’s operations, power up its growth, and accelerate its success across the region. Husaint previously held the creative and global brand head position at the agency.

Husaint brings with her strong experience in developing a creative and strategic approach to managing brands’ creative remits. She became an integral part of Greenpark’s growth in APAC whilst helping to grow the agency’s revenue with global and regional business.

Marcelo Bittencourt, departing managing director for APAC, said that Husaint deserves the promotion because she has been pivotal in growing the agency’s business and culture.

Meanwhile, Husaint commented, “I plan to inspire a strong, inclusive, and diverse culture—to do my part in powering business growth to the next level. I am also excited to usher in a new era of Greenpark—my vision is to have a holistic approach with creativity and innovation at the core.” 

“I envision a business model that’s driven by innovation such as Generative AI Creative Solutions. This is my future-forward vision to continue pushing the boundaries of creativity, while being able to offer cost-efficient solutions to our Client partners,” she added.

Greenpark has been growing its operations in seven APAC countries with over 130 digital experts within its team.

Earlier this year, Greenpark has also announced the promotion of Lesley Renton as its head of marketing and demand generation for APAC.

Singapore – Property technology company PropertyGuru has announced the appointment of Manav Kamboj as the new managing director of its fintech business. Kamboj will retain his role as the chief technology officer of the company.

In his expanded role, Kamboj will lead the business, leveraging technology, data, and analytics to drive further digitisation of the home loan process and operational excellence. He has been working closely with the Fintech team since it was established which also helped him in gathering insights into his new role.

Kamboj has extensive experience in the consumer internet industry across eCommerce, mobile applications and technology consulting. Furthermore, he has led cross-functional teams in retail lending, product management and customer acquisition strategy.

Kamboj started to join the PropertyGuru group as chief technology officer in 2017, leading a distributed team of engineers, software developers and data scientists who deliver technology solutions to address the ever-changing needs of home seekers, real estate agents and property developers across the region. 

He also spearheaded the inauguration of PropertyGuru Group’s technology Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, India, which marks the Group’s sixth country office alongside offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. 

Before joining PropertyGuru, he was with e-commerce platform Snapdeal as vice president of technology where he shaped the product and technology roadmap for buyer platforms.

Hari V Krishnan, chief executive officer and managing director at PropertyGuru Group said that Kamboj’s strong skillset in technology and finance will help the company’s Fintech ambitions, including digitisation of home loan process in Singapore.

Kamboj expressed his excitement as he takes a new role in the company because of new opportunities to help the consumers.

“Our focus will be on developing products and solutions for the mortgage market that guide the home buyers’ financing needs and that are more often than not the biggest hurdle in their home ownership journey,” he added.

Last month, PropertyGuru also appointed Disha Goenka as its new chief marketing officer.

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.

Malaysia – Leading superapp Grab has appointed its ten-year veteran Adelene Foo as its new managing director in Malaysia. In her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing the business strategies and operations of Grab’s businesses in the country. 

Foo brings with her a strong background in launching and scaling regional Grab businesses. Transferring to Grab in 2012 right after her consultant stint in Accenture Management Consulting, she first assumed the country head position of the super app for over 2 years through 2014. After this, she held a regional launcher position in 2013 and became the country head of Grab Indonesia in 2014. 

After leading the Indonesia team for a year, Foo started her regional roles for the superapp, being the head of Grab’s 2 wheels business, grab express, and grab merchant for over six years through 2021.

Russell Cohen, group managing director of operations at Grab, said, “Adelene’s proven credentials and entrepreneurial spirit in scaling and growing Grab across Southeast Asia fits perfectly for this next phase of growth for Grab in Malaysia and I’m so excited to welcome her back to the country leadership team.” 

Meanwhile, commenting on her new role, Foo said, “Grab is committed to the long-term development of Malaysia. I look forward to working with the team to focus on introducing more affordable access to the best of our platform, create more earning opportunities for our partners, help more micro-entrepreneurs digitise and grow, and train more talent to support Malaysia’s growth in the digital economy.”

Aside from new her role at Grab, Foo will continue to lead the Malaysian upscale supermarket chain Jaya Grocer as its chief executive officer.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has elevated current managing director for Indonesia John Campbell-Bruce to the role of regional managing director of Southeast Asia. He brings with him a wealth of expertise in strategy, account management and delivery.

In his new role, Campbell-Bruce will be leading the client service teams across the region in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to further strengthen the agency’s one-company regional approach, offering the best integrated solutions to client partners.

He will be reporting to Fredrik Gumpel, chief executive officer at Lion & Lion.

After spending 15 years working in Australia across digital, traditional and media publishing, he moved to Indonesia three and a half years ago and assumed the position of managing director for Lion & Lion Indonesia. 

He has worked at some of the biggest companies in the world across a variety of industries, including but not limited to: Microsoft, Hyundai, Kia, PepsiCo, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, American Express, Tourism Tasmania, Unilever, Blackmores, Nokia and Diageo.

Speaking on his new role, he said, “The last 3.5 years have been transformative for me personally and professionally. I am very excited about my new responsibilities where I can drive growth for the Lion & Lion network and effect new ways of working across the current three markets. I feel very at home at Lion & Lion, and I am determined to assist the agency network in achieving our aggressive expansion goals across ASEAN.”

Meanwhile, Gumpel commented, “I’m very happy to see John take this next step in his career. It’s well deserved as John has grown tremendously as a leader over the last 3.5 years where he’s really taking the step from being a marketing leader to becoming a strong business leader.” 

He added, “With John’s positive attitude, his dedication and wealth of knowledge on how to drive client service organisations, I’m excited to see him take this next step into a regional role where we as an organisation can leverage his capabilities and leadership on a broader scale.”

Reporting to Campbell-Bruce will be the newly appointed business directors of Malaysia and Singapore, Amelia Peng and Hendero Fin, who will focus on developing and strengthening client connections as well as unlocking new local and regional brands in their respective regions. 

The new appointment comes after Lion & Lion announced its strategic expansion plans in Southeast Asia centred on strengthening core capabilities, and delivering impact through the integration of data and creativity.

Manila, Philippines – Media and marketing communications agency PHD has appointed Jam de Guzman as its managing director in the Philippines. In his new role, de Guzman will elevate business growth, strengthen network partnerships, and enhance client servicing operations.

With more than two decades of media and advertising experience, de Guzman has previously taken on senior leadership roles in Publicis Media, Dentsu International, and IPG Mediabrands. During his time in the agencies, he has built a reputation for producing innovative capabilities, delivering commercial growth, and driving transformative solutions for clients.

In addition to his industry portfolio, Jam has played a key role in shaping the advertising and communications landscape. Currently, he serves as the President of Media Specialists Association of the Philippines (MSAP) and the Board Secretary of the Ad Standards Council (ASC).

He will be reporting to Mary Buenaventura, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Philippines.

Speaking on the appointment, Buenaventura said, “Jam is a visionary leader with a strong track record of driving transformative growth for clients. His expertise in delivering value across a spectrum of media services and his strategic business sense are assets to our team. I am delighted to welcome Jam to the PHD family, and I am confident that Jam will continue to build on what PHD Philippines has already achieved and move the agency forward in its next era of growth.”

Singapore – Wootag, Singapore-based visual marketing SaaS company that offers visual interactive and insights to marketers, has recently launched ‘Wootag For Ads’. Simultaneously, Jeffrey Kwan has been appointed by the platform as its new managing director.

Wootag for Ads is an integrated solution that enables marketers to explore audience behavioural insights and target them with interactive video and display using Wootag Signal and OTT+ to deliver in-stream and CTV ads. This marketing solution is said to provide marketers with expanding offerings in interactive and intent-based audience engagement across various forms of advertising.

Meanwhile, Kwan’s appointment is seen to help the company expand its business in the Asia Pacific region. Kwan brings with him an outstanding track record in the field of adtech and marketing. He previously served as MD of Teads and business director of Greater China at Reuters. Prior to joining Reuters, he led the Financial Times’ Greater China & South East Asia sales team.

CEO & Founder of Wootag, Raj Sunder said, “The digital industry is growing exponentially. Leveraging the combined strengths of our expanded solutions and Jeffrey’s appointment, we are further capturing the opportunity and significantly boost Wootag’s growth across the region. With Jeffrey’s extensive experience in this industry across publishers and media agencies, we aspire to enhance our push to empower our clients on driving business outcomes with next-gen visual interactive and set new standards for integrated visual marketing solutions.”

Currently, Wootag has operations in 13 countries.