Move and win roundup: Week of July 17, 2023

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover July 17 through July 21, 2023.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Dentsu Creative has appointed Surjo Dutt as chief creative officer for West and South India, effective from 1 September 2023. Dutt will succeed Aalap Desai, who exited Dentsu. Before joining, Dutt was chief creative officer at FCB India. He will report to Amit Wadhwa, CEO of Dentsu Creative India. Desai, who was CCO for Dentsu Creative West and Dentsu Creative Experience India, joined Dentsu Webchutney as senior creative director and head of copy in Mumbai in 2018, and was promoted to CCO last August. Before Dentsu, he worked for agencies including Ogilvy, DDB Mudra, Leo Burnett and JWT. Campaign India has more on this story. 

Yahoo has appointed Tressie Lieberman as chief marketing officer (CMO) in its first CMO role since 2015, following an extensive executive search process. Lieberman brings over twenty years of traditional and digital marketing experience, transforming world-class consumer brands such as Chipotle, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. She will report directly to Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone, and will oversee all aspects of the company's global marketing strategies, brand positioning, user acquisition and customer engagement initiatives. Before joining Yahoo, she was vice president of digital marketing and off-premise at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Prior to Chipotle, Lieberman was CMO at Snap Kitchen. She also served as VP of digital innovation and on-demand at Taco Bell.

Ogilvy has appointed Ida Siow as senior strategy partner for Ogilvy Asia. Siow will work across China as a key market and the broader region. Partnering with the creative and strategy teams, she will play a crucial role in developing innovative offerings and sharpening creative effectiveness to drive growth for businesses. She is a global strategist with over 15 years of experience with iconic brand leaders and fresh disruptors in Europe, China, and Southeast Asia, winning multiple awards at Cannes Lions and Effie. Before returning to Ogilvy, Siow led 72andSunny as president of the Singapore office. Prior to that, she was head of planning at J. Walter Thompson Singapore and Southeast Asia and senior strategist at BBH London. Siow was Ogilvy’s planning partner in Shanghai several years ago. 

Tonic Worldwide has been awarded the digital mandate for Brita, a German water filtration solutions brand, in India. Following a multi-agency pitch, Tonic Worldwide has come on board as the digital partner for the brand to help them reach out to Indian consumers and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable drinking water solutions. Brita started its India operations in 2017 and since then has been operational with its Filter Jugs and Tank pan India and its RO+UV water purification systems for urban households in the Bengaluru market.

DBC2, auto marketing agency, has been appointed marketing agency of record for car manufacturer Spartan Motor Company, effective immediately. DBC2’s immediate remit is to refresh Spartan’s brand identity and brand architecture, including a new look and feel across brand guidelines, messaging, tone of voice and positioning, and create a new brand strategy, PR, content creation, website refresh and digital advertising, ahead of officially launching Spartan’s limited-edition performance car, The Spartan, into the Australian market.

Wavemaker India has announced a series of key strategic changes to its leadership team to boost growth. 

• Premjeet Sodhi, previously chief strategy officer will take on the role of global head of measurement & analytics. In his new role, Sodhi will be part of Wavemaker’s global consultancy team. He will report to Anna Hickey, global consultancy lead and will be based out of New York. A media veteran with over 25 years of experience, Sodhi joined Wavemaker in 2020 as chief growth officer before becoming chief strategy officer.
• Mansi Datta will succeed him as chief strategy officer. A proficient leader heading North & East region operations at Wavemaker since 2020, Datta joined Wavemaker as general manager in 2015. 
• Shekhar Banerjee, chief client officer & office head, West, will be taking on the additional responsibility of managing North & East for Wavemaker India. Banerjee joined Wavemaker in 2018 to lead operations for the West region. In their new roles, Datta and Banerjee will report to Ajay Gupte, CEO of South Asia. 

FTI Consulting has appointed Jane Morgan as a senior managing director in the strategic communications segment. Based in Singapore, Morgan joins the Southeast Asia strategic communications leadership team. With more than 20 years of experience in corporate reputation and C-suite strategic counsel and employee engagement, she has advised senior teams across Fortune 500 firms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia Pacific regions. Prior to FTI Consulting, Morgan was managing director of Golin Hong Kong and head of client services APAC, Golin Group. Before Golin, she held director positions at Edelman and Ketchum. Morgan has been recognised with numerous industry accolades, including Campaign Asia’s 40 Under 40 and Women to Watch.

Netskope has appointed Kunal Jha as regional director of Asia. Jha brings with him 22 years of experience in sales operations and leadership at major networking vendors across Asia. He will lead Netskope’s go-to-market strategy and execution across South East Asia and Hong Kong, with the objective of growing partnerships and sales across the territory. Before joining Netskope, Jha was director of sales for South East Asia at Citrix. At Netskope, Jha will aim to put the SASE (secure access service edge) conversation at the top of Asian organisations’ tech agenda, and as more organisations seek converged networking and cybersecurity infrastructures, ensure Netskope becomes the go-to player to help them modernise.

PubMatic and iQIYI International have expanded their partnership through the implementation of PubMatic’s OpenWrap OTT. OpenWrap OTT is PubMatic’s unified auction solution for OTT and connected TV (CTV) publishers. Through cutting-edge technology, iQIYI International delivers relevant and customised premium drama series, movies, variety shows, and anime worldwide. After implementing OpenWrap OTT, iQIYI saw a 6x increase in programmatic revenue.

Eleven Melbourne, part of TBWA, has announced several new appointments to support Kiefer Casamore, general manager of Melbourne, Eleven & Sustain by TBWA, and Matt Stoddart, who was recently elevated to the role of executive creative director of TBWA Melbourne and Eleven.

• Harrison Webster and Max Reed have been promoted to joint creative director roles. Webster and Reed have both been at TBWA Melbourne for seven years. Together, they’ve built the agency’s internal content production offering and created brand platforms for some of Australia’s largest businesses, including NAB, Medibank and most recently, SEEK. The duo will lead all creative outputs for Eleven Melbourne and sit on the national leadership team.

• Eliza Smith has been appointed as client partner. Splitting her career between Australia and the US, Smith has developed integrated communications strategies for global and local brands, including Airbnb, ANZ, SodaStream, Coles and 7-Eleven. She will work closely with Casamore to lead Eleven Melbourne’s day-to-day operations and help drive the agency's future growth.

GrowthOps Asia has appointed Arshad Ahamed as regional director of media and brand strategy. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Ahamed will report to Chris Greenough, general manager of GrowthOps Asia (Malaysia).  Before joining GrowthOps Asia, he was strategy director at GroupM Sri Lanka. Bringing with him over 15 years of experience, he worked in multinational agencies and corporations in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka. He has held numerous strategic leadership roles throughout his career, from Wunderman Thompson to GSK. 

Bolster, culture marketing specialists, and Common State, leading arts and entertainment PR agency, have merged to form a newly created agency group. The group will also welcome commercial rights, experiential and sponsorship specialists Aeroplane Agency and Indigenous-owned creative collective Going North. Common State founder Luke McKinnon and Bolster managing director James Clarke – the founder of Aeroplane Agency and Going North – will be the largest shareholders of the newly formed entity. Clarke will serve as CEO of Bolster Group and McKinnon as its managing partner while also remaining managing director of Common State. Emma Costello returns to Common State as general manager after a stint in Europe, and Darren Levin steps into the newly created role of head of creative and strategy.

Clemenger BBDO has appointed its first chief growth officer, Anita Zanesco, and new managing partners, Georgie Winton and Anita Deutsch-Burley. Zanesco joins from Trinity P3 pitch consultancy and will take charge of growth strategy following recent wins across the agency’s government portfolio, PZ Cussons and ASD (National Cybersecurity). Before Trinity P3, Zanesco led new business at Havas in Australia for two years. With close to two decades of agency and marketing experience, she started her career with five years at Publicis London and then moved to Leo Burnett Australia and Trinity P3. Winton will be based in the Sydney office. Prior to BBDO, she worked at agencies including Ogilvy and Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as 303 MullenLowe. She will lead a portfolio of business for Clemenger BBDO. Deutsch-Burley joins Clemenger from the client side, and will be based in Melbourne, leading the retail and fashion specialism for the agency. In the past five years, she worked at tech and software businesses, including Lexer, a leading customer data platform for retailers and Mutinex, a marketing analytics SaaS platform. Before that, she worked at George Patterson Y&R, McCann and Wunderman.  

Icon Agency has promoted Kate Griffiths to the newly created role of director of brand and change, effective immediately. She is located in Melbourne. Griffiths will lead teams in crafting creativity-led behaviour change campaigns and brand projects that prioritise positive, cause-led impact. She was group account director, partnership director and change lead, Before joining Icon Agency in 2021, she held roles on both client and agency sides, such as Havas, Sano Health and The Shannon Company. 

Battery, creative hot shop, has expanded its footprint in China. Industry veteran, Paul Lin, will lead Battery’s office as managing director in Shanghai. Lin has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and startups, working for top agencies in Canada and China at WPP, Publicis and Omnicom. He has extensive experience planning and executing integrated campaigns across North America and China. Battery Shanghai’s initial clients include Tencent Games, Lilith Games and Rivergame. The agency has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto before opening its Shanghai new office. Havas is reported to have acquired Battery in 2019.