Starcom Malaysia chief departs

Yap will be leaving SMG to pursue other interests outside the industry. Somanathan was previously vice-president, insights and analytics, South and Southeast Asia. He has been with SMG for the past seven years. He will be based in Kuala Lumpur and reports to Jeffrey Seah, CEO, Southeast Asia.

Yap joined SMG to establish the Mediavest operations in Malaysia, and assumed the CEO role at SMG three years ago. “He has constantly and relentlessly ensured SMG’s success in the market through the growth of both local and international business,” said Seah in a statement.

In his previous role, Somanathan helped launched SMG’s proprietary study on consumer attention, IntenTrack, in 12 markets across Asia in 2008.

Furthermore, Somanathan has experience working on the Procter & Gamble account throughout his career and has been leading the communication planning team on the P&G business in Japan since January 2009.

Somanathan is the second senior management change at SMG in recent weeks following the appointment of MEC’s Bertilla Teo as Greater China CEO last week. Current North Asia chief Paul Maher is returning to New Zealand.