Manila, Philippines – Creative and communications network dentsu in APAC has appointed Mark Gabriel Chaves (Mako), former client partner and head of media, creatives, and analytics at insights and consulting company Kantar, to be its new head of media for dentsu Philippines.

Chaves brings with him over two decades of experience across relevant fields of expertise in media research, strategic planning, analytics, and creative development. He will be returning to dentsu after 14 years, where he first worked at Carat Philippines in 2008, and three subsequent stints at dentsu Malaysia between 2010 to 2016 as communications planning director, chief insight officer, and most notably, general manager for innovations. 

Aside from his most recent role at Kantar, where he was responsible for the set-up, go-to-market strategies, and revenue growth of media and digital, social analytics, and business analytics, as well as oversight of creative capabilities, Chaves was also the general manager at Zenith Media Philippines.

In his new role, Chaves will be responsible for driving synergies for dentsu Philippines’ media brands and working closely with the heads of iProspect, dentsu X, and Carat brands to ensure a unified representation of dentsu’s media capabilities in the industry.

Commenting on his appointment, Chaves said “There’s more to building brands – chief of which is mutual growth as partners around a central transformational idea. Our CEO JC has brilliantly put together a team of experts to realize his vision for dentsu Philippines and I’m humbled to be seen as someone who can complement an already-strong team of innovators and brand-builders.”

Meanwhile, JC Catibog, dentsu’s CEO for Philippines, shared that Chaves is a big picture thinker and highly-motivated contemporary marketer who fundamentally believe that building brands is multi-faceted and hard work, and trusts the unique role of media. 

“All of us in the Philippines are excited to welcome Mako back to the dentsu family and look forward to working closely together in scaling our media business to new heights,” said Catibog.

In February 2022, Richard Reid, formerly the head of consulting, data, and performance at integrated marketing agency Iris, has also been appointed as the new regional integrated strategy partner at dentsu for APAC, where he will be responsible for driving integrated strategy development for dentsu’s key clients as well as new business opportunities across the region.