Tag: New hires

Australia – Havas Group’s specialist entertainment communications and PR agency Organic Pacific has strengthened its line-up with four new hires, including Nathan Dann as head of entertainment, Emily Macgroarty and Lauren Patterson as account managers, and Alexander Hon as the new account coordinator.

The addition of new hires comes as the agency continues its pursuit of delivering results on projects of all sizes to the highest standards, ensuring that clients return again and again.

In his role as head of entertainment, Nathan Dann will head up and run the newly won Netflix account in the region. He is an entertainment industry stalwart and senior publicity expert, joining Organic after more than six years at Universal Pictures International, where he was Publicity Manager.

Dann has spent the majority of his solid PR career in entertainment, with stints at Warner Music, Nine Publicity, and most recently, Universal Pictures.

Of his new role, Dann says, “We live in exciting times, where the landscape of how we consume entertainment is shifting daily, and communications strategies need to be creative and adaptive, and companies like Netflix are leading the way.

“It’s an exhilarating time to join Organic, with the Australian office being in a period of significant growth. I look forward to doing great work with the team at Organic,” he added.

On the other hand, Emily Macgroarty and Lauren Patterson would both be taking on the role of Account Managers.

Macgroarty comes from a background in public relations agencies and has worked on the client side in Brisbane. Meanwhile, Patterson has almost five years of working experience at Premier London, a creative communications agency for entertainment, arts, and culture.

Finally, Alexander Hon, a recent PR graduate, will complete the team as the new account coordinator.

The addition of new hires comes after Havas Group’s significant recent new business win in a series of high-profile client wins across Australia in 2023, including companies such as Netflix, Universal Pictures Content Group, BMG Records, Sony Pictures, Roadshow Films, Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, and running the PR and communications for SXSW Sydney in October, the first time a SXSW® event—the famed Austin, Texas, innovation conference and cultural festival—has been held outside of North America in its 37-year history.

Organic Pacific Managing Partner Annabelle Gigliotti says that she is thrilled and looking forward to the work that they will do with the new hires of experts she made.

“Coming up to our second year for our Australian operation, it’s been incredibly gratifying to confirm there was a real need in the local market for Organic’s global expertise in entertainment comms. With our win locally, Netflix is now a global client, having been with our UK branch for EMEA comms for a decade,” she added.

Singapore – VCCP Singapore has hired two new members to its leadership team, with the goal of aiding the agency into its next phase of growth. Katya Obolensky has been named managing director, and Mark Teal has been named chief marketing officer. Both hires are effective immediately.

Obolensky and Teal join the agency to help it grow, strengthen its presence in Singapore, and expand across Asian markets. As managing director, Obolensky will uphold the agency’s dedication to producing creative work and providing excellent client service.

Obolensky brings over fifteen years of advertising business experience in both New York City and London to the agency. Her career began at JWT NYC, where she worked on the Microsoft account, and she later moved to M&C Saatchi in London, where she was working for clients such as Hyundai, Currys/PC World, Public Health England, and Havana Club. She recently served as the leader of the Virgin Media O2 account at VCCP’s London headquarters, joined the London arm as a Senior Account Director back in 2015.

Speaking about her appointment, Obolensky expressed, “I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing the challenger spirit of VCCP London to Singapore, and couldn’t be more pleased to have Mark join us at such an exciting time in our growth story. We’ve had an incredible few years and I’m excited to take our Asia offering to its next stage .”

Teal has two decades of experience in advertising and marketing technology. He arrives from Wunderman Thompson, where he is the head of business development, directing marketing technology alliances and driving creative and technology-related pitches. Previously, as business development director at Digitas, he was responsible for increasing the agency’s expertise in CRM and CMS build projects. 

Meanwhile, Julian Douglas, International CEO at VCCP said, “VCCP Singapore has seen solid momentum, bringing in clients Canon, Cathay Pacific, Toll and Deliveroo and welcoming several new superstar hires. Now with both Katya and Mark on board, we have the right leadership in place to propel the agency and Network even further as we reach the third phase of our global expansion plan which has APAC at the heart of it. I look forward to seeing their impact on our business.”

Singapore – Green Park Content (GPC), the content marketing agency under the Unilever Foundry start-up ecosystem, has announced a diverse lineup of new hires, coming from agencies and brands across APAC, including Malaysia and the Philippines, to further strengthen the GPC’s presence in APAC.

For the client servicing team, the new hires include Crissy Ancheta as head of client services for APAC, Regine Mercado as group account director for Unilever account, and Elaine Giam as senior account director.

Meanwhile, for the creative production team, the new hires are Matt Yu as head of design, Trina Enriquez as copy lead, Renzo Virey as senior art director, and Mirza Afiq Beg as regional social media lead.

Lastly, the new editorial team hires are Lily Wong as managing director for Malaysia, and Jordana Maia Blanco as managing director.

Speaking about the new hires, Fe Husaint, who was recently promoted to the role of creative and global brand head, commented, “Our new, top, creative talents will no doubt be pivotal in delivering award-winning campaigns and developing creative solutions that will significantly improve the SEO performance of the brands we work with and the positive and successful business outcomes for our esteemed clients.”

Meanwhile, in her new role, she added, “I am excited to embark on my new role as creative and global brand head. GPC is already well-established as an SEO-driven agency, and I look forward to building synergy between SEO and Creative, together with this formidable new, talented team. My vision is to bridge Green Park Content’s best-in-class SEO offering with our GPC creative solutions, enabling our clients to reach the right audience at the right time, in a more efficient and impactful manner.”

Que Ramli, who has also been a part in growing Green Park Content’s social business in the APAC region, has also been promoted from APAC social media lead to global social media lead. 

Lastly, Martin Niens, formerly head of client services, has likewise been promoted to the role of head of operations.

“As the world becomes more digital and data-driven, I look forward to building and leading our project management and UX/UI teams; and working with them to capture big growth opportunities across our portfolio, improve efficiencies, drive transformation and advance our operational excellence to enable greater performance and results across the APAC region,” Niens said regarding his promotion.

Speaking about the slew of hires and promotions for GPC in APAC, Marcelo Bittencourt, managing director for APAC at GPC, commented, “What makes our business successful is that we continue to prioritise our team. We’re thrilled to promote team members who have gone above and beyond, and bring in many new outstanding, talented individuals. I am confident that the new hires will be excellent matches for the positions and strong assets to our company.”

Singapore – Advertising firm Ogilvy in Singapore has announced that over 20 people has been hired by the firm to beef up its creative department. This follows the firm’s recent growth from more than 25 pitch wins across categories such as technology, retail, financial services, and healthcare.

According to an Ogilvy spokesperson, the roles are a mix of integrated, conceptual, content and experience creatives and craft specialists.

The new hires are namely Bruno Andrade, Cheong Wen Xuan, Chun Sim, Clara Wong, Dana Lim, Dinah Nordin, Faith Low, Izz Bachtiar, Jamie Lim, Jerome Toh, Joseph Lim, Julia Batrisya, Maggie Michella, Rachel Chew, Sandra Tan, Sonali Ranjit, Toan Mai, Troy Lim, Winnessa Ho, Zac Tan, and Zi Wei.

Chris Riley, chairman of Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia, said that the new hires will elevate the firm’s focus on integrating their skills in creative concept, design craft and content services all under single leadership, adding that they are well-placed to partner their clients with their growth objectives.

“As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, we have seen an eagerness from our clients to accelerate their marketing transformation and related ambitions. The significant investment in our talent ensures we have all the creative firepower required to drive [a] bigger and bolder creative impact for our client’s customers, communities and importantly the environment in which they operate,” Riley stated.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Courant, chief creative officer at Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia, commented, “This is an exciting time for us as creative energy is at an all-time high. Our client partners want to make a difference and they know they can only do it by connecting with their audiences in more meaningful ways. For us, it’s the opportunity to continue building a unique creative company that combines creative thinking, tech, data, content and commerce and become the most trusted partner for brands.”

Sydney, Australia – DoubleVerify, the software platform dedicated for digital measurement and analytics, has announced a slew of appointments for its Australian market namely Sophia Warren as client strategy director, David Shen as business director, Susie Mather and Stuart Kruger as sales directors, and Neil Anderson as sales solutions specialist.

The team expansion adds commercial expertise to support customer growth in the region — helping global brands maximize their digital investments and drive real business outcomes. 

Warren will continue to build deep relationships with partners in order to better understand their performance criteria — ensuring the application of DV solutions complements their investments and helps deliver better outcomes for brands. 

“I’m excited to work more closely with our brand and agency partners to drive media quality and performance across the market. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a part of the DV team as we continue to work with our customers and partners, helping to build a better industry,” Warren said regarding her appointment.

Meanwhile, Shen will be helping programmatic buyers derive maximum performance from campaign investments. He has over a decade of digital and ad-tech experience across agencies and vendors, working on prominent global and local brands such as Samsung, Nestle, Amazon, Coca-Cola, J&J, and NBNCo.

On the other hand, Mather is in charge of serving the needs of brands and agencies in ANZ, and helping them maximize media quality and effectiveness. She has over 20 years of broadcast and digital experience, including stints at ViacomCBS (UK), Matterkind and Seven West Media (SWM).

Kruger’s responsibility scopes responsibility for partnering with media agencies, trading desks and clients to educate them on how to best utilize DV’s programmatic offerings to drive media performance. He spent nearly seven years with Unruly in both London and Sydney, ending up in an ANZ Group Sales Director role.

Lastly, Anderson will be the key technical resource to the team. He works with clients to manage discussions, testing and the troubleshooting of DoubleVerify’s solutions. With over fifteen years experience in the ad tech landscape across the ANZ region, Anderson has worked at Google/DoubleClick, neo@Ogilvy, Lotame and the first demand-side platform in Australia, Brandscreen. 

According to Imran Masood, country manager for ANZ at DoubleVerify, the new hires to their team bring valuable experience from the agency, publisher, broadcast and programmatic fields.

“In the past two years, we have secured major wins in the telecom, financial services, FMCG and retail industries, and have forged relationships with global holding companies and local independent agencies. I am delighted to welcome David, Susie, Stuart, and Neil to our team as we advance our mission to make the online advertising ecosystem stronger, safer and more secure — for advertisers and publishers alike,” Masood stated.

He added, “Growth has been underpinned by our focus on delivering a single, definitive standard and currency for media quality across all media channels — including priority investment areas, like CTV. Our team is focused on supporting and advising our clients on the best use of quality metrics to maximize brand outcomes.”

Singapore – Ampverse, an esports entertainment company, has announced new hires for its company in response to their expansion to Vietnam and Myanmar this year.

Top hires include director of revenue and customer success Jackie Tangngumvitayakul formerly of media company Starcom, head of client solutions Kate Siriwattanakul formerly of media investment company GroupM.

Other additions to the Ampverse team include strategic initiatives manager Athiti Sujarit formerly of esports event organizer Garena, and new team members across its sales, finance, human resources, creative solutions, and esports divisions. 

“We are really pleased to welcome this bunch of talented and bright individuals to Ampverse. As we prepare ourselves for the next phase of growth, I’m incredibly proud that Ampverse continues to attract talent of such high caliber. Reflected by their diverse interests, personalities, and knowledge, our new talent will support us in bringing forth wider creative solutions for our clients,” said Ferdinand Gutierrez, CEO of Ampverse.

He added, “Vietnam and Myanmar are among Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, with both markets displaying a huge growth potential for gaming, boasting many promising players and a robust gaming community. As we settle into 2021, our goal is to extend our resources, talent, and experiences in places where we know there is a clear demand.”

Ampverse is currently operating with three esports teams and has worked with brands such as Samsung, KFC, Porsche, Electronic Arts, Lazada and Grab.