Move and win roundup: Week of March 14, 2022

Effie Asia Pacific has appointed Jane Lin-Baden, managing partner APAC & CEO North Asia of Publicis Groupe and Vishnu Mohan, partner & chief growth officer at Dept as heads of Jury for the APAC Effie Awards 2022. Based in Shanghai, Lin-Baden oversees Publicis Groupe in North Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea & Japan) and is responsible for its digital operations, key accounts and market expansion in the APAC region. Mohan is responsible for scaling up the agency’s operations in Asia Pacific. In addition to this role, he founded Avyan Holdings in 2021, designed to be a collective of companies working on integrating design, technology, and data.

Preetha Athrey, head of Marketing at Twitter India, has been appointed as director Global Business Marketing APAC. Disha Goenka who was previously heading the APAC role, is now taking on a global role leading Regional Business Marketing teams overseeing marketing strategies across Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America.

VCCP Singapore has appointed Belynda Sim as APAC head of Strategy, Sim joins from TBWA where she was strategy director and helmed Backslash APAC, an editorial and cultural strategy unit within the network. Sim also completes the leadership team after VCCP hired Jaslyn Lam as business director in November 2021. 

Independent research and insights agency TRA has expanded its Australian footprint, opening a Sydney office and appointing Terri Hall as managing partner. Hall’s remit will be to build the Sydney business, plus appoint a team of research and insight experts to service cross-category brands. Hall was previously head of Client Services with TRA. Hall will report to MD Andrew Lewis and commences her role from April 1 2022. 

Publicis Groupe appointed Tomoko Akizawa as managing director of MSL Japan and business director of Publicis Groupe Japan. She will report to Gareth Mulryan, CEO of Publicis Groupe Japan, and Margaret Key, CEO MSL Asia, AMA. Akizawa has more than 20 years of experience in communications, including nearly a decade with Edelman Japan prior to MSL, in various roles including director of technology and digital practices and most recently as executive vice president and client growth leader.

Angkas, a motorcycle ride-sharing service in Philippines, selected Omnicom Media Group as its Media agency of record after a pitch. The client cited the agency's innovatative thinking, strong media capabilities, and transparency as reasons for the selection.

Esprit appointed Larry Luk as chief digital and marketing officer. With a design background, he has extensive experience in the retail industry, including interior design, visual merchandising, buying, ecommerce, and digital marketing. He was previously CMO at L’Oréal Hong Kong. He will be responsible for pushing forward the brand's ecommerce expansion through customer experience strategies and storytelling marketing campaigns.

Lodestar UM appointed Aditi Mishra as its CEO. She will take the reins from current CEO Nandini Dias. Mishra has been with the company since 2011 and was previously chief strategy officer. In addition, Hema Malik has been promoted from COO to chief investment officer of Mediabrands India. (See full story on Campaign India)

DLG, an independent digital agency for international luxury and lifestyle brands, appointed Frederic Bonn as global chief creative officer and partner. In addition to global creative vision, he will be contributing to DLG China’s creative practice, collaborating with creative director Christy Yen. He joins from digital marketing agency iCrossing (Hearst Corporation) where he was ECD.

Lintas C:EX Entertainment, a newly launched branded and original content division of MullenLowe Lintas Group appointed Niranjana H as creative director, brand solutions. A broadcast media and entertainment professional, she comes with over nine years of production experience across films and TV. She was previously with Discovery Communications, Zee Entertainment and most recently, Arré (U Digital Content). 

Wavemaker appointed Matt Hofmeyer, formerly MD of Wavemaker Adelaide, as MD of Wavemaker Hong Kong. He succeeds Stanley Ngai, who is moving to pursue personal interests after 15 years with the agency, according to Wavemaker. Hofmeyer has worked for Wavemaker for nearly two decades and is credited with an instrumental role in client partnerships including Mitsubishi Motors, Government of South Australia, Bridgestone, UniSA and South Australian Tourism. Hofmeyer reports to Caroline Chan, CEO of GroupM Hong Kong, and Gordon Domlija, CEO of  Wavemaker Asia-Pacific.

Ogilvy China appointed Kent Lee as head of experience for Ogilvy Beijing. He will lead a team of ecommerce, CRM, loyalty and data specialists. Lee has over 20 years of strategic and digital experience and joins from TippingPoint, a cross-border design and innovation-based incubator, where he led the brand marketing capability, helping US brands devise go-to-market strategies for China. Prior to that, he served as GM of Wunderman’s Beijing office.

Edelman Global Advisory (EGA) has appointed public affairs veteran Ana Saleh as senior vice president of advisory and trade in Indonesia. She will report to APAC chair Ian McCabe. She previously served as the senior economic policy advisor for agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food at the Netherlands Embassy to Indonesia for the last seven years. Prior to that, she was senior engagement manager at The Forest Trust, an NGO promoting responsible sourcing of agricultural products.

Creative agency BMF promoted Richard Woods, formerly head of account management, and Aisling Colley, formerly deputy head of account management, to general managers. Colley has been at BMF for over 10 years and for the past four years has led the Aldi account. Woods was promoted to head of account management in 2020 and joined the Enero Group over six years ago. 

TBWA Sydney appointed Ross Weythman as creative director and Simon Hayes as senior art director. Weythman most recently worked with Saul Griffith to establish Rewiring Australia, an organisation dedicated decarbonisation. He has worked with Nike while at RGA in New York and and was creative lead for the Hillary for America campaign’s digital video team. Hayes spent the last
three years at Anomaly in New York working on brands including Budweiser, Crown Royale Whiskey and Booking.com. He also has experience at Clemenger BBDO Sydney and JWT.

UM Australia appointed Vanessa Stuart to the newly created role of head of new business and marketing, joining the national leadership team. She was most recently client service director at WPP AUNZ agency Maverick, where wins included Western Sydney Airport, the New South Wales Government 'Don’t be a Tosser' campaign and 2018’s Powerade Powerscore for Coca-Cola. Prior to Maverick she was a senior leader at whiteGREY and prior to that was MD at C4 Communication. 

Horus Development & Consulting, a specialist in luxury tourism development, named Choy Teh as PR representative. She will spearhead PR initiatives for the Promotion Bureau of the Principality of Monaco.

Chimp&z won the digital manate for ALTBalaji’s Lock Upp, a reality show-based fantasy metaverse game. The agency’s headquarters in Mumbai will amplify enrollment in the game with creative communications across social platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram. The digital duties also include online reputation management and influencer collaborations. 

OMD India appointed Iti Kaul to spearhead its digital practice. She was previously GM of digital planning at PHD Media. She has 13 years of experience in the industry.

Volkswagen appointed L&A Social to manage organic social media for its passenger vehicles brand, following a four-agency pitch. The Sydney social media agency has been working with the brand for two years, and was reappointed to handle end-to-end social media activity, including strategy, content development, photo and video shoots, campaign development, reporting and social listening. L&A Social will continue to manage Volkswagen PV’s social pages across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.