Move and win roundup: Week of February 3, 2020

McCann Worldgroup Singapore appointed Mark Ringer to a newly created position as both regional creative director for Mastercard and executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup Singapore. He joins from Dentsu Singapore, having worked in Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and London, for agencies including TBWA, DDB, FCB, Batey Ads and Anthem.

Great Eastern appointed Dentsu Aegis Network's Happy Marketer as regional SEO partner. The agency will be charged with raising brand visibility for Great Eastern Life Singapore, Great Eastern Takaful and Great Eastern Life Indonesia. The brand is a subsidiary of OCBC Bank. The work will include optimising the brand's websites.

BBC Studios South & Southeast Asia promoted Cheryl Png to VP of distribution for Southeast Asia and Stanley Fernandes to VP of distribution for South Asia. Both will work across affiliate sales, digital sales and content sales. Previously Png headed up the affiliate sales business for Southeast Asia, while Fernandes led content sales for South and Southeast Asia. In addition, Sweta Sriram has been promoted to manager of content and brands for the South Asia region.

Mezzo Labs, a UK-based digital intelligence consultancy, has expanded to Singapore from its regional base in Hong Kong, which opened in May 2018. The Singapore office, located in Carpenter Street, will be headed up by general manager Mark Teal, reporting to Patrick Milburn, MD for Hong Kong and Singapore. Teal was previously head of growth and partnerships for ASEAN at Digitas.

MullenLowe Philippines has announced four new client wins in 2020. Following a pitch, the Philippines Department of Tourism awarded the Korea-Philippines Friendship campaign to the agency. MullenLowe was also selected by a pitch to work on a relaunch campaign for the Philippine International Convention Center. The agency has been named digital AOR for Shakey's pizza restaurant chain and has also taken on work for global skin treatment brand Restylane.

W Communications has won the 2020 PR retainer for fitness brand Virgin Active in Singapore. The brief includes creative campaigns with a focus on creative partnerships and strategic influencer programmes. The win expands W’s health and fitness portfolio with existing clients including LA-cult brand Barry’s Bootcamp, family-focused martial arts and fitness centre FaMA, and the body-toning power suit Vision Body.

BBDO India appointed Digvijay Singh Shekhawat as GM and executive vice president to head its Bengaluru operations, reporting to Suraja Kishore, CEO of BBDO India. He joins from Ogilvy and has more than 20 years of experience with agencies including Wunderman and India Today.

Design and branding agency Holmes & Marchant has poached Cowan Asia CEO Paul Galesloot to become its new global chief executive. Galesloot joins the MSQ Partners-owned agency at the beginning of February, working across its Shanghai, Singapore and New York offices. He replaces Addison James, who is standing down from a full-time role in the agency after 11 years. James will relocate to the UK in March, but will remain an advisor. Galesloot, who will report directly to MSQ CEO and founder Peter Reid, has worked in branding and communications across Asia, Australia and Europe for both brands and agencies. Galesloot was named chief executive of Cowan’s overall Asia operations in 2016 after serving as managing director of Cowan China. 

Reckitt Benckiser has appointed Omnicom Media Group for its media mandate in Indonesia effective immediately following a competitive market review launched in Q4 2019. OMG will take on the full responsibilities for traditional media and digital planning, while digital buying will be split between Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Groupe for specific categories. IPG Mediabrands was the incumbent on the account and Campaign understands MediaCom was also involved in the pitch.  The media account, believed to be worth approximately US$30 million involves Reckitt Benckiser's entire portfolio of brands in Indonesia, which includes names like Dettol, Lysol, Durex, Clearasil, and Strepsils. 

Colenso BBDO appointed Nathalie Moolenschot as head of customer experience strategy. She has 20 years of experience on the client side at Westpac, Bank of New Zealand, Air New Zealand, ASB and The Warehouse Group.

Clemenger BBDO Sydney appointed Brona Kilkelly as senior planner. She has close to 10 years of industry experience and was most recently in senior strategist roles at VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson in Sydney. She has also worked at Rothco Accenture Interactive in Dublin and has developed strategies for brands including Allied Irish Bank, Aer Lingus, the Irish Tourism Board, HSBC, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson, Subway, Nestlé, Unilever and Vodafone.

DBM Consultants, Campaign Asia-Pacific's Consultancy of the Year for ANZ, has appointed Kipling Zubevich as CEO, tasked with accelerating its growth through innovation. Zubevich joins from National Australia Bank where he was most recently general manager of business marketing, directing the activities of 100 in-house and agency professionals. There he led successful SME brand campaigns and product acquisition programs while shaping NAB’s agile marketing transformation and evolving its business customer segmentation model. Prior to NAB, Kipling spent over a decade as a strategy consultant in the finance, pharmaceutical, government, manufacturing, and energy sectors. 

Global media consultancy K7 Media appointed Victoria de Kerdrel as Asia Pacific consultant. De Kerdrel has spent time with the BBC in London, Barcelona and Paris, before moving to Singapore. Since moving to Asia in 2011, she has worked on over 30 co-productions in conjunction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan (MIC), the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS). She has also worked with TRX, managing the online TV rights portal’s rollout across Asia Pacific.

Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup announced that Ben Lilley, former CEO of McCann Australia, is assuming ownership of the agency. Read more.

Selling Simplified Group, a B2B demand-generation company, appointed Bhavesh Thakor as vice
president of strategic partnerships in India. He was most recently with IDG as as VP of digital and marketing and has 18 years of experience in content marketing, go-to-market solutions, demand generation, sales enablement programs and international business development.