Move and win roundup: Week of March 3, 2025

TBWA Sydney has named Josh Taylor Dadds as its new head of strategy. Dadds will report to Michael Hogg who was announced last week as the new chief strategy officer for the Group which includes TBWA, Eleven, Fleishman Hillard, Fabric, +61 for Telstra and TBWA Media Arts Lab. Originally from the UK, Dadds has been based in New Zealand for the past five years, most recently serving as the group strategy director at Special. Prior to Special, he was a strategy director at TBWA New Zealand.

Dentsu Creative Webchutney has strengthened its creative leadership with the introduction of a national creative leadership team.  The agency has appointed eight national creative directors (NCDs) across three regions, reporting to Surjo Dutt, chief creative officer, Dentsu Creative Webchutney:

• West: Ajeet Shukla & Giamaria Fernandes
• South: Arijit Sengupta & Mark Flory
• North: Romit Nair, Moumita Pal, Abhijeet Ray & Manzoor Alam

Geely Auto, a global automotive maker, has engaged brand storytelling and experiential innovation agency Invnt to deliver the global launch of its first all-electric EX5 SUV in Australia, following a competitive pitch. The lineup of activities includes the official brand and car launch event and party and all supporting activations, including media drive and technical training. Invnt joins a suite of agencies supporting Geely, including Havas Host (creative and social), Havas Media (media), Dentsu (PR and Influencer management) and Merkle (website and CXM).

Kicker Communications, the strategic communications consultancy, has announced a series of appointments and promotions.

• Laura Blue joins as business director and brings 15 years of PR and corporate communications experience in B2B SaaS, HR tech, and fintech. Before Kicker, she was a PR Agency co-founder and irector.
• Beroze Dubash and Rochelle Cervantes have been promoted to associate directors. Dubash, joined Kicker in 2020, and has 11 years of experience in communications, with particular emphasis on brands in the FMCG, NFP, and legal communications sectors. Cervantes, joined Kicker in 2019 and has 10 years of PR and marketing experience across tech, consumer, leisure, and hospitality in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
• Agnes Wan has been promoted to senior consultant, with four years of communications experience and a background in journalism, consumer marketing, and influencer marketing. 

McCann Singapore has announced new appointments for its creative team. Meanwhile, Valerie Madon, chief creative officer, McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, adds the title of CCO, McCann Worldgroup Singapore to her remit. 

• Martin Coppola joins McCann as creative director. He was Lego’s global creative lead in Denmark. Originally from Uruguay, Coppola also worked for global agencies such as VML, Ogilvy, and Mullen Lowe. 
• Wynn Gray joins as art director, with experience at Sadshrimps, Leo Burnett, VaynerMedia and 72andSunny.
• Seth Low joins as junior art director as his first full-time position, with creative internships at Dentsu and Publicis. 
• Luna Teo joins from Goodstuph as copywriter. Having previously collaborated with agencies like Havas and Ogilvy, she will be working under McCann Content Studio.
• Jodi Ong joins from Goodstuph as junior copywriter. She will be working with the McCann Content Studios team.

VaynerMedia Australia has appointed Denny Handlin as its new executive creative director. He was most recently head of global business marketing at TikTok ANZ. Prior to that, he worked at Meta, Dentsu, Clemenger Group and Ogilvy. Handlin will report to Karen Coleman, country manager in Australia, and Woei Hern Chan, VaynerMedia's head of creative for the Asia Pacific region.

Dom Hickey, chief strategy officer of Howatson+Company, will leave the agency to take a career break, after serving the role for over three years. She was responsible for building the agency’s strategic output, deepening relationships with clients, and contributing to industry recognition. Hickey was DDB Australis's head of planning before joining Howatson+Company in 2022. She worked for Miami Ad School, Wunderman, and CX Lavender before DDB.

FCB India, part of FCB Group India, has been awarded the creative mandate for Dulcoflex, a global brand in digestive health, following an extensive multi-agency pitch. As part of this mandate, FCB India will drive integrated marketing campaigns to reinforce Dulcoflex's leadership in the laxative category and expand its relevance among Indian consumers. The account will be managed from the agency's Mumbai office.

Labelium Group, a digital marketing consultancy, has won haircare giant Ghd’s ANZ media account, following a competitive pitch process.The contract started in January 2025, covering media buying, planning, and strategy on all its channels, including programmatic advertising, and paid social and search. Ryvalmedia Brisbane and Labelium Sydney, under Labelium Group, will serve the account.

The Atelier & Co (TAC) Holdings has appointed Julia Wei as its new CEO. Wei was most recently CEO of Edelman Singapore. Before that, she served as managing partner of AKA Asia, VP of integrated communications for Lazada Group for the region, and general manager for TSLA. She will be working closely with Lelian Chew, founder of TAC Holdings and Sarra Chhoa, executive director, to further strengthen the company’s three brands. Wei will be responsible for operational success, strategic expansion, and growing the firm’s influence in the luxury segment.

VML has appointed Kalpesh Patankar(Kal) as group chief creative officer, India. Patankar was most recently serving as chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Dubai. Returning to India after nearly 20 years in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he brings a global perspective to the India business. He also served as CCO at VMLY&R Dubai. He has served as jury president at award shows including Cannes Lions, D&AD, Andys, and ADFEST. Based out of the agency’s Mumbai office, Patankar will report to Debbi Vandeven, Global CCO, VML  and Babita Baruah, CEO VML India. He will work closely with Paul Nagy, APAC CCO.

Initiative Australia has announced its new strategy team lineup following the recent appointment of Tom Dodd to the national chief strategy officer role. All appointments and promotions are effective immediately.

• Ali Coysh takes on Dodd’s previous role of national head of strategy. Coysh was previously Sydney's head of strategy.
• Clare Graham joins the agency as Sydney strategy director.
• Tom Davies takes on an expanded role adding product to his remit, becoming the newly appointed Sydney head of strategy and product, the role previously held by Coysh.
• Tate Nalen joins in the role of Melbourne strategy director, following stints at Mutinex and Thinkerbell, working alongside Graham plus Charles Dangibeaud, Perth’s head of strategy.

Sarah Smith has taken the reins at Havas Group’s entertainment communications consultancy Organic Pacific after founding managing partner Annabelle Gigliotti stepped back from the business following a cancer diagnosis. Gigliotti appointed long-term industry colleague Smith as acting manager while she focuses on her medical treatment. Smith has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry where she served as Foxtel Group director of communications and PR, Stan head of PR, entertainment and sport, as well as stints with Endemol Shine, Warner Bros Entertainment, ITV Studio Australia and Universal Music.

Today the Brave has promoted Cosmo Haskard to client services director. Since joining the agency in 2023, Haskard has played a role in leading accounts including Carnival Cruise Line, News Corp Metro & Regional Mastheads, StrangeLove Beverage and Wendy’s.  With over a decade of experience in adland, Haskard worked in Toronto at indie agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, and at Adam&eveDDB in London.

 

TikTok Australia and New Zealand general manager Brett Armstrong and marketing lead Denny Handling are leaving the social media company, according to Australian media coverage. Armstrong joined TikTok five years ago as one of the first senior hires for TikTok Australia. Armstrong is Google’s former New Zealand country manager and head of media agencies in the ANZ region. Prior to that, he worked for Digilent Consulting, Macquarie Bank and Westpac Institutional Bank. Denny Handlin, TikTok’s previous head of global business marketing AUNZ, is being succeeded by Sushmitha ‘Sushi’ Ghatty, TikTok’s marketing strategy and operations lead. Handlin is another early joiner of TikTok Australia from Facebook. He worked for Dentsu and Clememger BBDO before Facebook. Ghatty worked for Google and EY before joining TikTok last year. 

 

Enigma has appointed Simon Lee to the newly created role of chief creative officer and partner following a six-month executive search process. Lee takes the creative helm of the agency’s 80-strong team across Sydney, Newcastle, and Brisbane and becomes the agency’s first CCO and the first leader to join as a partner. Most recently he was the creative architect, leader and joint owner of The Hallway.

 

Dept is expanding its operations in India with the launch of a dedicated hub in Bengaluru. Leading the efforts from Bengaluru is Rishi Bhargava, head of solution consulting at Dept India. Bhargava and his team will work closely with partner Adobe to deliver solutions to businesses headquartered in the region. Bhargava joined Dept from Axeno in 2024. Previously, he worked for Adobe and IBM. 

 

BBC Studios has appointed Robi Stanton as EVP & general manager of global media and streaming for Australia & New Zealand. In this role, she will be responsible for content sales, channels and streaming and advertising sales in the region. Stanton brings over 25 years of experience across distribution, commercial strategy, marketing and advertising sales in a range of executive leadership roles in global media and entertainment companies. She was most recently commercial director for CNN International. Previously, she held senior roles at Warner Bros Discovery and Turner International.

 

C27 has been named the official social media agency for United International Pictures (UIP) Malaysia. The partnership aligns with C27 and UIP Malaysia’s shared vision of fuelling a desire and need in audiences to experience movies as an art form to its preferred quality.

David Dahan has been elevated to global client lead, Milo, and managing director, Nestle Asia, at Ogilvy. Dahan joined the agency network in 2017 as its worldwide managing director of Unilever, based in Singapore. He was promoted to global client lead of Unilever in 2019. Before moving to Ogilvy, he was the founder & managing director of Unilever at WPP. Prior to WPP, he also served as T&Pm APAC president, CMO of Australian Weaving, and managing director of M&C Saatchi Australia. He also worked for Ogilvy London and BBDO Asia in his early career.