Bates Ogilvy Cambodia appoints new MD

Phoon takes over from Marianne Waller, who returns to her native Australia for several months to spend time with her family and pursue other opportunities. Waller was CEO of Bates Ogilvy for three-and-a-half years.

Prior to this appointment, Phoon was regional business director at MRM Worldwide. She began her career in Singapore, working for agencies OgilvyOne, Wunderman, Profero and TBWA across a broad range of clients, including AMEX, SAP, CISCO, Microsoft, Daimler-Chrysler, Qatar Airlines and Johnson & Johnson.  

On her appointment John Goodman, Southeast Asia president of Ogilvy & Mather, said, “As the only international network with a Cambodian office, we are very proud of the success of our operation in Phnom Penh. Marianne has done a great job of developing the agency over the past few years. As she returns to her homeland we are pleased to welcome Elaine Phoon back to the Ogilvy family. Elaine will strengthen the strategic offering of the office as the market continues to evolve.”

Bates Ogilvy is a leading strategic and creative agency in the country. “As marketing becomes increasingly cluttered, ad hoc opportunism is being replaced by serious clients who recognise the value of brand development with agency partners, Elaine’s background of managing strategic direction for brands will raise the bar in this area,” added Goodman.

Phoon will continue to develop and strengthen agency relationships with data leading telco Qb, Kingdom, the country’s first premium beer as well as key NGO PSI partners and Unilever. With the economy now in full recovery from the set backs of the global recession and with growth in key sectors over the past months, the IMF have predicted the country’s economic growth rate will expand by between six and seven per cent in 2011.