Move and win roundup: Week of February 8, 2021

Dongfeng Infiniti Motor appointed Havas Media Group China as its media agency for its media business in 2021. The agency will be responsible for media strategy, content marketing and media buying, with the media resources spanning traditional and digital media. The client intends to consolidate its luxury brand reputation, further cultivate the local Chinese market, and meet the expectations of more Chinese consumers for luxury cars.

TBWA Singapore promoted Mandy Wong to managing director with immediate effect. She has been managing partner since early 2019 and has been with TBWA since 2001, working out of Malaysia and Singapore. She will continue to work in partnership with the executive management team and directly with CEO Ara Hampartsoumian to handle people management, financial planning, productivity and operations. Wong started her career with TBWA in Kuala Lumpur as an entry-level account executive on the global Tourism Malaysia business. She managed Standard Chartered across Asia, Middle East and Africa, and she was part of the winning pitch team on the Singapore Tourism Board business.

Colgate-Palmolive appointed Ogilvy Malaysia for strategic and creative communications, digital, and social media duties throughout 2021 across all its businesses, including its oral care and home care brands such as Colgate, Softlan, and Elmex. The extended remit follows Ogilvy's 'Smile Strong Bersama' campaign in 2020. Ogilvy will be driving the account in Malaysia by creating local campaigns in collaboration with Red Fuse, an integrated global WPP team dedicated to Colgate-Palmolive. 

Electrolux appointed Hashtag Interactive for strategy and execution of its social media content hub for the Electrolux APAC & MEA region, following a pitch that concluded in 2020. The region includes key markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore and is considered to be Electrolux’s fastest growing region with the most potential. The agency will be responsible for delivering consistent, high quality, and on-brand social content every month that local markets can use on their respective local
pages. The appointment will be for one year, and stated in January.

Sedgwick Richardson, a branding, design and sustainability agency, appointed Lisa Gamreklidze as executive director and Selena Trang as commercial manager for Southeast Asia, effective immediately. Gamreklidze joins from Eight Partnership, where she was managing director for clients for three years. Her prior roles include Prophet, Publicis Groupe, Imagination and Campaign publisher Haymarket Media in both London and Hong Kong. She will be based in Hong Kong and will look after Greater China, alongside Andrew Kane, MD for Greater China. Trang will be joining the Southeast Asia team, based in Singapore and working with regional MD Dominic Mason. She was previously with PurpleAsia and HAGL Group. 

Nikkei appointed Tsuyoshi Hasebe as president and CEO, replacing Naotoshi Okada, who will assume the post of chairman and group CEO. The current chairman, Tsuneo Kita, will become corporate adviser. The nominations are subject to formal approval at a meeting of the board of directors on March 25. Okada launched the English language Nikkei Asia (then called Nikkei Asian Review) in 2011 while serving as editor, and four years later purchased the Financial Times as CEO.

Effie Asia Pacific announced Alex Lubar, president of McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, and Erica Kerner, SVP and head of marketing strategy and commercial partnerships at ONE Championship, as the first two heads of jury for the APAC Effie Awards 2021. The remaining heads of jury will be introduced in coming weeks.

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) promoted Eileen Ooi, managing director of PHD Malaysia for the last four years, to the role of chief operating officer of OMG Malaysia. Under her leadership, PHD Malaysia’s business doubled in size, according to the agency. She will be tasked with overseeing the business operations of OMG and its brands in Malaysia, supported by Anisha Iyer, MD of OMD Malaysia, as well as Kiron Kesav, who will be taking on an expanded remit while continuing in his role as GM of PHD Malaysia. She will report to OMG APAC CEO Tony Harradine. 

Interpublic Group's Matterkind, billed as an activation intelligence company, appointed Matt Ware as the head of Matterkind APAC. He will support the company's continued global growth strategy and increase addressable activation opportunities internationally, the company said. Ware was previously managing director for Xaxis in Japan and also served in leadership roles as MediaCom’s APAC head of programmatic and MediaMath’s APAC commercial director. He will report to Erica Schmidt, global CEO of Matterkind, and his appointment is effective immediately.

Qualtrics appointed Jason Laufer as country manager for Australia and New Zealand, where he will lead a team of more than 200. He has more than 20 years of experience in senior leadership roles in the software industry, including at LinkedIn, IBM, and Microsoft, and is recognised as one of Australia’s Outstanding LGBTI Leaders.

Lintas Live, a digital-first creative PR agency (formerly known as GolinOpinion), won the PR mandate of Allied Blenders and Distillers after a competitive multi-agency pitch. Lintas Live is set to develop the PR communication strategy for ABD and its brand portfolio, which will include, PR content creation and corporate reputation building, solidifying ABD’s vision to be the most admired Spirits Company in India. 

In Australia, MediaMonks appointed Matt Grogan as digital creative director, Kean Edwards as experience design director, Sophia McDermott as senior UX designer and Sophia Feary as senior producer. Grogan was previously creative director and partner at AnalogFolk in Sydney and prior to that was with Tribal DDB and The White Agency. Ewards joins from Atlassian, where he was lead experience designer, and has also worked at AnalogFolk in London and Havas and Razorfish in Australia. McDermott was with MediaMonks in Amsterdam before coming back home to Australia. She also has experience at Khemistry and GrowthOps. Feary, also returning to Australia from Amsterdam, joins from Adidas and was at 303 Mullenlowe and Digitas previously.

Moving Walls appointed Charranjeet Singh Arora as business development director for Indonesia, Sujit Banerjee as head of demand in India and Heng Aw to head growth in emerging markets. Arora, known as 'CJ', is the ex CEO of Kinetic Worldwide. He also has experience with Star Group, Sahara Media, Rapport Worldwide, Lintas Media Group, Reliance Entertainment, Interpublic Group and Dentsu Aegis Network. Banerjee was formerly director and CEO of Ecosys and prior to that was a vice president with Posterscope. Aw was formerly regional executive director, Asia Pacific, of Worldwide Partners and also has spent time with Nielsen.

The Trade Desk announced the opening of an office in Melbourne. The office joins the company's Sydney location to help drive the next phase of growth in Australia and New Zealand, The Trade Desk said. Kali Guillas, lead director of client strategy, has returned to Australia from Singapore.