Move and win roundup: Week of March 29, 2021

Brunswick Group announced that Li Hua will join as a partner in the Beijing office, focused on M&A, antitrust and public affairs. Hua joins from Squire Patton Boggs, where she was a partner in the global corporate practice in Beijing. There, she focused on foreign investment law, M&A, commercial law, competition and antitrust law and outbound investments. Prior to that she was a partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel. She began her career with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (now Ministry of Commerce) in Beijing before becoming vice-director of foreign trade at the former State Commission for Economy and Trade (SETC). Hua has a deep knowledge of Chinese legal frameworks and government relations. She is a specialist in anti-monopoly law and an arbitrator of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC).

Independent creative agency Special Group has hired Max McKeon as creative director. McKeon joins from Colenso BBDO, where he's been creative director at the Auckland-based creative agency for more than two years. During his tenure, McKeon worked on brands including DB Export, Monteith’s, Extra, Pedigree, Spark, and Eta, and led campaigns including 'I’m drinking it for you', 'Take a baby step into parenting', and 'That’s Why'. Prior to Colenso BBDO he worked at The Monkeys and was responsible for the award-winning ‘It’s a Tide Ad’ Superbowl spot. Throughout his career McKeon has scooped over 100 individual recognitions.

GroupM has promoted Andrew Ruegger to global president of GroupM Commerce, a new role that will seek to scale commerce-focused products and services for clients. Ruegger also leads the group’s collaboration in WPP workstreams across commerce. Under Ruegger’s leadership, GroupM is organising its specialty commerce practice from around the group to meet the sector’s growing demand, with an emphasis for brands on sales and awareness. Ruegger has been leading GroupM's US commerce offering for the past two years. He's been with the network for more than six years in total with experience across data science, product, technology, strategy, innovation, SEO and paid search. Prior to GroupM he was Amazon media and investment lead for WPP.

Havas Media Group Australia has hired Dan Johns in the newly created role of managing partner, effective immediately. He will report to Virginia Hyland, CEO of Havas Media Group Australia, and will help further drive the digital and data capabilities of the business. Johns' 27-year career includes roles as COO at IPG Mediabrands Australia and CEO of media agency Ikon. Most recently, he founded an independent consultancy, Ippon, which has provided strategic and operational advice to a variety of blue-chip marketing businesses.

Agnes Media, a performance media agency founded by Charlotte Ward, has launched with global payment and shopping service Klarna as a foundation client. The Sydney-based independent specialises in working with clients that have aggressive growth and measurement goals. In addition to performance media strategy, planning and buying, the agency also provides campaign management, analytics, SEO and creative design services. Ward has worked in media across Australia, Europe, Middle East and Asia and has previously held roles at Amobee, Qantas, and DWA in Sydney, as well as OMD, PHD, and UM in Dubai. 

TripAdvisor company TheFork, an Australia-based restaurant discovery and booking app, has appointed WhiteGrey as its brand and creative agency, effective immediately. WhiteGrey is tasked with delivering new growth in the market by helping Australians discover new dining experiences and opening up new diner revenue opportunities for restaurants.

Finn Partners has appointed two new managing partners in Asia, Singapore-based Naeema Ismail and Shanghai-based Jenny Lo. Both appointments are effective immediately. Ismail is promoted from her previous role as senior partner and general manager of Ying PR. She takes on overall responsibility for the Singapore operations. Lo was previously general manager of China. As managing partner she is responsible for growing the agency’s footprint in client and talent acquisition. Meanwhile, Singapore-based managing partners Allan Tan and Yin Ching Yeap will become executive advisors for Asia, providing counsel and guidance to the Asia leadership team and focusing on building the agency’s training capabilities.

INVNT, the live brand storytelling agency, has expanded its APAC operations with the appointment of new creative and production talent in Singapore and Sydney. Based in Singapore, Sarah Bailey joins INVNT as creative director. Bailey brings more than ten years’ experience to the role, where she has worked in agency and client-side roles at companies including Freeman and Publicis Singapore. She is
joined by Karen Ho as a junior designer in Sydney. Elsewhere, Ema Wakeford has been hired as executive producer in Sydney, joining from George P. Johnson, Caroline Bubb joins as senior producer, Rebecca Wheatley as producer and Lauren Moorhouse as production coordinator.

The Bangalore office of Mullen Lintas has been appointed as the brand strategy partner for OkCredit. The three-year-old business simplifies bookkeeping for shop owners and their customers in tier II, tier III, and beyond cities. Currently, its users are spread across 2,800 Indian cities. Mullen Lintas is working on campaigns to get small businesses, merchants, shop owners and entrepreneurs onboard.

IPG’s Mediabrands has made two promotions within their APAC regional leadership team. Zarka Khan-Iltaf, women’s leadership program winner in Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 2019 Women Leading Change Awards, has been promoted from her former position of HR director to chief talent officer for Mediabrands APAC. Naomi Michael, who featured in Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 2018 Women to Watch list has been promoted from her former position of head of marketing and communications to the new position of chief marketing and communications officer for Mediabrands APAC. Both newly created roles are based in Singapore and are effective immediately, reporting directly to Leigh Terry, CEO Mediabrands APAC.

Entertainment, lifestyle and sports marketing agency Allied Global Marketing has opened an office in Sydney, Australia to support its existing operations and expand its business in the region.  To head the office, the company has appointed industry veteran Jamie Crick as managing director, APAC. Crick will report to chief global strategist Adam Cunningham. Crick has worked in digital marketing since commencing with DoubleClick’s international media business in Dublin in 1999. He co-founded the social video advertising and content business, Boom, where he built and productised networks of APAC’s social influencers and creator talent, including Australia’s first YouTube multi-channel network. Joining creative agency Emotive as part of its launch team in 2015, he built and ran its content distribution and analysis offering, working with brands such as Optus, HelloFresh, Amazon’s Audible, Google, Coca-Cola and Unilever.  

Iris Singapore has appointed Arun Saha as its new head of PR. In the role, she will lead the agency’s PR function that manages Nespresso's communications strategy and execution along with other accounts. She will also work closely with the leadership team to elevate brand awareness and reputation for the agency. Saha joins from Havas Group where she led the regional marketing and communication strategy for the network. 

Moët Hennessy, part of LVMH group, has appointed Co-maker, the influencer marketing arm of Havas Group, as its influencer marketing agency of record. Dianna Mannion, a new hire, will take a seconded role to lead the program of work. In her role, Mannion will drive Moët Hennessy’s influencer strategy across its portfolio of brands including Belvedere, Hennessy and Glenmorangie.

Rasheed Abu Bakar will join Sandpiper Communicartions as associate director to lead Southeast Asia and international briefs for the firm’s technology, energy and environment, and aviation practices out of Singapore. He joins from APCO Worldwide, where he led international corporate communications and public affairs briefs for clients of the firm’s Singapore and Indonesia offices. 

Howorth, opr’s business-to-business and technology agency, has been appointed to create and execute a multi-region growth communications strategy and creative for Skyjed, a digital product management platform. Howorth’s remit encompasses brand strategy and brand narrative development, creative, digital strategy and media planning in addition to all content marketing and media relations. Effectively immediately, the first creative campaign is expected to launch in the first half of 2021.