Move and win roundup: Week of February 6, 2023

Jordan Khoo has left his position as managing director, APAC of DoubleVerify as part of a recent layoff exercise by the adtech firm, Campaign Asia-Pacific understands. He spent more than five years at DoubleVerify. 

Krispy Kreme has appointed Sling & Stone as its agency of record. The partnership will see Sling & Stone work closely with Krispy Kreme to deliver the brand platform of Joymaker, creating experiences for Aussies and Kiwis. 

GrowthOps Asia has announced the appointment of Devinder Banga as their new regional head of data and analytics. In his role, Banga will lead the scaling of the analytics team by introducing new solutions along with developing relationships with technology and data partners, working on GrowthOps Asia’s regional clients. Prior to joining GrowthOps, Banga was most recently the director of analytics at GroupM India. 

Communication consultancy Ruder Finn Thunder, part of the Ruder Finn (RF) Group, is expanding their operations in Southeast Asia, opening a new office in Singapore. Phoebe Shen has been appointed as deputy general manager of RF Thunder Singapore, reporting to Ruder Finn’s Asia Pacific CEO, Elan Shou. Before joining RF Thunder, Shen was a sector leader at Edelman Shanghai and a group account director at Ogilvy Shanghai, advising clients on integrated communications strategies across various sectors. 

Netflix has promoted Jerome Bigo to new senior director of marketing for SEA, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Bigo takes on the role in addition to his current role of marketing director for SEA. 

Wunderman Thompson India has appointed Richa Dholi as vice president, strategy planning. Based in Mumbai, Dholi will be the strategy lead on Wunderman Thompson India's Unilever brands. Dholi has worked at Capgemini, Ogilvy, Lowe, McCann and most recently at India’s very own Twitter, Koo. 

Media.Monks China has hired Kelly Woh as its’ executive creative director for China, effective immediately. Reporting to Joao Flores, regional executive creative director of Media.Monks APAC, Woh will work alongside Rogier Bikker, managing director of Media.Monks China. Before joining Media.Monks, Woh was with Ogilvy Shanghai as group creative director. 

Bastion has announced the appointment of Tim Den Braber as national managing director, Bastion Digital, Australia, joining from Deloitte Digital. In his role, Den Braber will lead the digital offering within Bastion Australia with a focus across brand experience, CX and technology transformation. He has spent the last four years in consulting across Deloitte Digital and Capgemini. 

Pizza Hut Singapore has appointed global marketing agency Team Lewis as its partner for public relations as well as social media content creation and management, following a competitive pitch. The agency is responsible for providing consultancy and handling media relations, while maintaining a prominent and consistent identity across communication channels. 

Hotwire Global Communications has hired Gosia Gnyp as client services director and Roz Cooper as people and culture business partner. Gnyp joins Hotwire Australia from Hotwire UK, following an eight-year stint in London where she held various leadership and management positions within communications agencies including Burson Cohn & Wolfe, PPR Worldwide, Clarity and, most recently, Hotwire in London. Cooper joins Hotwire in the newly created role of people and culture business partner. The new role will operate within the local Australian leadership team and fuel the consultancy’s growth from within. 

WATG has announced the appointment of Sean Harry as managing principal, design technology. In this newly created leadership role, Harry will lead the firm’s ongoing strategic investment and deployment within WATG’s technology ecosystem focusing on generative design, computational systems, visualization and software development. 

Brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch has named Teemu Suviala as its new global chief creative officer. Suviala will take responsibility for creative teams in studios across more than 20 countries worldwide, splitting his time between London and New York, working with clients such as Apple, Netflix, Coca-Cola and Lego. Previously holding creative director roles at agencies including Collins and Wolff Olins, Suviala joins from Meta where he was global head of brand design for its Reality Labs.

DDB Group Hong Kong has promoted Maggie Cheung and Koman Ko to managing partners. They will report directly to Hong Kong CEO Andreas Krasser and their roles will expand to include overall day-to-day operations, new business growth, talent development and further elevation of DDB’s agency culture. Previously group business directors and part of the management team since 2019, both Cheung and Ko have helped drive the agency’s strategic and creative output.   

EssenceMediacom has annouced Pippa Berlocher as the new CEO for Australia and New Zealand. Current boss Pat Crowley who led the agency through the merger between Essence and MediaCom, is moving internally to a client-facing role as managing partner. Read more here.

Visa has announced two senior leadership changes in the Asia-Pacific region, with Chris Clark elevated from regional president to chairman, Asia Pacific, and Stephen Karpin named as his successor as regional president, Asia-Pacific. Both changes are effective from 1 April, 2023. In the new role, Clark will support regional and global initiatives, including strategic engagements with government and industry stakeholders, drive Visa’s market expansion strategy and continue his role as a non-executive director of the Visa Europe Board. As regional president, Karpin will now be responsible for the full business operations, client management and go-to-market plans for the region, based in Visa’s regional headquarters in Singapore. 

Rakuten Advertising has appointed Neil Cao as commercial director for China. Cao will be responsible for leading the Rakuten Advertising business across China by developing and implementing performance marketing strategies for clients and accelerating growth in the country. 

Optimizely has named Shafqat Islam and Sebastiaan de Jong as chief marketing officer and chief sales officer, respectively. Islam was the co-founder and CEO of Welcome (formerly known as NewsCred). He joined the Optimizely team as general manager when Optimizely acquired Welcome in 2021. De Jong previously served as senior vice president and general manager for the EMEA and APAC regions and specialises in scaling, growth strategy, and experimentation. He joined Optimizely in 2018 to grow the EMEA region. After Optimizely was acquired by Episerver in 2020, de Jong took on the expanded responsibility of the SE Asia and ANZ regions. 

Laura Aldington, CEO of Host/Havas has announced her resignation from the agency she first joined in 2007. After becoming CEO in mid-2017, her leadership has been recognised multiple times in the last five years, including in Campaign Asia's 40 under 40 (2017), AdNews' Top 10 leaders (2018), Campaign Asia's Women to Watch (2021) and Mumbrella's Industry Leader of the Year (2022). Host/Havas enjoyed a strong 2022 under Aldington’s leadership, with a slew of new business wins in both creative and CX/data, including the hotly contested global account for Tourism Fiji. She also helped to establish research team Havas Labs and re-launched their CX capability. Aldington will continue to serve as the deputy chair on the Advertising Council of Australia's board of directors, a position she has held since 2018. A new CEO appointment for Host/Havas will be announced shortly following an extensive search.

Global hospitality group The Lux Collective has appointed Jeremie de Fombelle as chief sales and marketing officer. With over two decades of leadership and operational experience, de Fombelle started his career in Vietnam in 1999 and has worked at leading hotels in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia and China before being named regional GM for Mauritius and Reunion Island for Lux Resorts & Hotels.

Within weeks of being acquired by Clarity Global Group, Australian communications agency Sefiani has hired Alice Spraggon in Sydney, with a global remit as head of editorial content for digital marketing. In a new hybrid role, her focus will be shared across local and multi-market clients. Spraggon worked in Clarity’s communications team in its London office for three years, before moving to Australia in 2021 and joining Howorth, part of Ogilvy PR, where she led communications teams for Microsoft, Twitter and SAP. 

Australian customer engagement platform Komo Technologies has appointed Aussie Merciadez to the new role of global chief of customer engagement and loyalty partnerships. Her 20-plus year career in the field includes more than eight years at Optus as a senior manager of partnerships, customer engagement and loyalty building long standing relationships with and supporting broader Singtel global loyalty initiatives, Optus Enterprise, and SMB.

Australian verification company, Veridooh, has appointed Steven Veytsblit as its first chief of staff to help grow and expand globally following a recent launch into the UK market. In his new role, Veytsblit will oversee the business’ finance, operations, and contribute to strategy and special projects, while creating efficiencies and adding value. He joins from Australian startup Dimple where he was chief operating officer. Veridooh also recently added software engineer Justin Nhan and senior engineer Jordan Benzacken. 

Initiative Australia has appointed David Cook to the newly created national role of head of marketing & IQ, based in Sydney. Cook’s remit is to lead IQ, Initiative’s consulting division, with a remit that also includes Initiative’s marketing program, including industry thought-leadership. Cook has held senior strategic roles at a number of media agencies and media publishers in both the UK and Australia, and most recently was head of trade marketing at Nine.

Sydney-based independent digital agency Orange Line has appointed the former senior director of client strategy and innovation at Capgemini, Adam Donnelley, as head of strategy. Donnelley has worked at leading digital consultancies and agencies in Australia and the US including chief strategy officer of ASX listed RXP Group, managing partner of DDB Sydney and executive vice president, strategy at MRM/McCann in New York. As an expert in customer insights, CX, digital transformation and business strategy, Donnelley will lead strategic initiatives for clients across industries including financial services, technology, real estate, exommerce, pharma, and start-ups.

Australian logistics technology platform Shippit has appointed Brett Chester as its new chief marketing officer. Chester has an extensive background in retail, and experience growing fast scaling SaaS companies in Silicon Valley. After a decade in the US where he helped lead the marketing functions at the likes of Replicon, Singular and Deputy, Chester has returned to Australia to be CMO at Shippit.