Gillies will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Vince Viola, managing director of McCann Erickson's Cathay Pacific Central Team, and Prashant Kumar, UM's president, World Markets Asia.
The Cathay Pacific Central Team manages fully integrated marketing communications for Cathay Pacific across 27 markets from its head office in Hong Kong.
Gillies, who has racked up more than 20 years of experience, joins UM from OMD China, where she served as managing partner, global accounts and business development. While in China, she handled Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo and Tourism Australia.
Prior to her role at OMD she served as the vice-president, sales and marketing at Metan Development Group, a multi-platform media company developing and distributing branded entertainment content in China across television and digital channels.
She has also worked with ACP Magazines as associate director, licensing and brand services, as well as with Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors as director of marketing.
Kumar and Viola commented that Gillies' diverse range of skills will be an asset to the account team as well as to UM.