Move and win roundup: Week of May 16, 2022

Bastion announced that Simon Langley joins as group chief creative officer, Australia, and partner after almost two years at independent creative agency Edge. Langley joins recent high-profile hires Angela Morris (national chief strategy officer) and Ana Lynch (Sydney managing partner). Prior to Edge, Langley spent over six years as national CCO of Wunderman Thompson, picking up multiple Cannes Lions, pencils at D&AD and The One Show NYC, Grand Prix at Spikes Asia for both Creative and Effectiveness and Effies among others. Langley has also held creative leadership roles at 303 MullenLowe. Bastion’s creative credentials were further bolstered recently through the acquisition of New Zealand's independent, Shine, now Bastion Shine.

Design Bridge Singapore has promoted Philip Dall to executive creative director. Tim Siro will step down to focus on leading creativity. Dall entered the agency as a senior designer in 2013 and was promoted to creative director in 2018. Siro has been part of the senior management team in Singapore since 2011 and was appointed ECD in 2014. Jon Neal has also been appointed to the newly created role of leadership creative director. Dall will report directly to Alex Cerruti, managing director at Design Bridge Singapore while Siro and Neal will report directly to Dall.

Gigamon announced two key additions to its senior management team in Singapore. Kenny Tan was appointed as senior channel director, APAC. Tan also joins the Asia Pacific and Japan channel partners organisation. Andy Tan was appointed as senior channel account manager, SEA. He will report to Kenny Tan.

Melvin Kuek is named CEO of BBDO Singapore as managing director Monica Hynds departs the agency. Kuek’s career spans 25 years including a previous deputy CEO position at DDB. He was also recently appointed as vice chairman of the Global Esports Federation’s Metaverse Council which aims to drive thought leadership and education to promote the integration of esports and gaming with VR, Web3 and Web4 technologies. Kuek will work closely with Guan Hin Tay, creative chairman at BBDO Singapore, and Tan Tze Kiat, CEO of BBDO Asia. 

The Works, part of Capgemini, has hired Daniel Pankraz as strategy partner where he will drive the company’s strategy capabilities and oversee all output for key clients including Masterpet, Aware Super, Goodman Fielder, The Smith Family, Subaru, H&R Block and Destination NSW. Pankraz is an experienced creative strategist having held senior roles at BBH New York, AKQA London, and Iris APAC. For the past six years, he was head of brand experience & innovation at Leo Burnett Australia. 

Data-driven communication platform for the creative industries Little Black Book (LBB), has appointed Toby Hemming as its first APAC managing director. The hire marks LBB’s expansion in the region as it seeks to grow an audience and membership base among marcomms companies. In this new role, Hemming will lead the commercial and strategic direction of the platform. Prior to this, he was head of marketing and communications at WPP AUNZ and spent eight years as founder and MD of APAC at media and tech communications agency Bold.

The Core Agency has appointed Rebecca Turner to the newly created role of managing partner where she will take a financial interest in the business as it scales for future growth. Turner has worked at the independent Sydney creative agency for nearly ten years, most recently as business director and now joins founding partners Christian Finucane and Jon Skinner with an ownership stake. In this new role, she will be responsible for driving agency growth and managing all commercial elements of the business, in addition to overseeing client service, people and operations.

MediaCom UK has appointed Susana Tsui Fitzpatrick as its first UK chief growth officer. Fitzpatrick joins from Cambridge Creative, where she was a business transformation consultant. Prior to that, she was president of Southeast Asia for Tatler Asia, where she launched ecommerce platforms TheTatlerBar.com and Tatler Unlisted. Fitzpatrick’s list of experience also includes chief executive of media at The Parent Inc, regional chief operating officer at OgilvyOne, Asia Pacific, chief executive of PHD, Asia Pacific, and group chief executive of Dentsu China (full story here).

Media agency Match & Wood has appointed Daniel Bradley to the newly created role of general manager of its Melbourne office. In this role, he will be responsible for client management, commercial and operational leadership of the Melbourne office. Bradley was previously at CHEP Network as its national head of investment where he led the investment teams and product across Sydney and Melbourne and worked with clients including Coles, Target, Samsung, Australia Post, Unilever and Virgin Airlines. He has also worked at PHD, UM, and Carat. 

Content discovery and native advertising platform Dable has appointed Jaedo Ryu as country manager for Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Ryu is responsible for developing and executing market expansion strategies in Australia as well as promoting the adoption and optimal usage of Dable's personalised content recommendation and native ad solutions for both advertisers and publishers. Prior to this, he worked as the regional sales manager at Ftrack where he managed the entire sales process and helped the company exceed its sales targets and marketing goals. Before that, Ryu worked at Yahoo, AOL, and Leadbolt where he worked closely with local advertisers and ad agencies.

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment announces key hires in its accounts team in Australia including Oliver Braley who joins as senior account director. Braley joins from Fuse London where he worked on brands such as Vodafone and HSBC, managing partnerships with premium rights holders such as Tour de France, British & Irish Lions and London Marathon Events. Jack Buckland, new senior account manager, joins from Octagon where he worked with brands including Mastercard, Cisco Webex and QBE Insurance to manage sponsorships for events such as the Australian Open and Rugby World Cup. In a  similar position is Allegra Sotudeh who has experience with delivering campaigns for Nike, Sony and Uber in the US and for Google, Bacardi and William Grants in Australia. Kira Mobberley joins as partnerships account manager with prior experience at the National Sporting Organisation (NSO) Surfing Australia where she worked with clients such as Hyundai, Nikon and Zambrero.

Athena, a mission-based service company that pairs executive assistants with entrepreneurs and leadership teams, has appointed Peter Sloterdyk as its CMO. Sloterdyk is a former marketing leader for Koala, Netflix, Grindr, and MXM (part of Accenture Interactive). The company also announced the appointments of Leanne Glamuzina as VP of global marketing and Tatiana Day as VP of global communications.

Hume Brophy has been picked to handle the PR mandate for EuroEyes International Eye Clinic. A strategic communications programme will be put in place to increase the number of EuroEyes touchpoints with clients and investors, ensuring proper delivery of relevant information about vision correction, business developments, and financial performances at EuroEyes. 

M&C Saatchi Spencer has streamlined its existing business in two major scopes: M&C Financial & Retail and M&C Art & Properties, led by its two group account heads Philip Tsang and Harriet Wong respectively. The company expanded its capabilities in the field of IP and ESG by way of a collaboration with entrepreneur firm Thinking Without Thinking. It also partnered with Nfternoon, a new green NFT and blockchain creative hub.

Identity provider Okta has appointed Celestine Tan as VP for APAC marketing. Tan will oversee the firm’s marketing function in the region including end-user, channel and field marketing, and corporate communications. Prior to this, Tan was VP of global field and partner marketing at Splunk, where she led an 85-person team and drove end-to-end marketing to generate demand and build the sales pipeline globally. 

Wunderman Thompson Tokyo has appointed Akira Suzuki as chief executive officer. Prior to this, Suzuki was head of global business marketing at TikTok for Business Japan, where he was tasked to shape the future of the business through the intersection of business, creativity, and engineering. Before that, he he held creative and strategic positions in Dentsu Japan, where he grew from strategic planner in 2007 to creative director, leading a team of 20 creatives in 2016. His work has also won over 180 international marketing and creative awards throughout his career, and most recently he was part of the jury for the 2020/2021 Cannes Lions.

Initiative has appointed Gary Luo to the newly created position of head of communications design in China, based in Guangzhou. He will collaborate with Abby Wong, chief strategy officer of Initiative, Greater China. Before this, Luo was head of MediaCom Guangzhou office, with 18 years of marketing, media, and digital experience. Meanwhile, Initiative has promoted Aimee Hung to head of client advice and management to drive its cultural velocity proposition for clients. With 20 years of experience in integrated communications planning, Hung joined Initiative in 2021. Both Luo and Hung will report to Karen Ho, CEO of Initiative China.

Brand-focused mobile advertising platform LoopMe has announced a number of appointments across the APAC region: Daisuke Shigeishi as head of digital partnerships, Georgia Watson as senior sales director, Akihito Morita as sales director, and James Symonds as senior sales director ANZ. The new hires will drive momentum and identify new revenue opportunities in APAC.

Jack Morton and Weber Shandwick announced key promotions for its creative team. Luke Clifton will lead ideas, strategy and content teams and will join Vinny Panchal (group managing director) and Helen Graney (CEO) to sit on the local executive team overseeing the two agencies in Australia. Paul Cotton will support Luke as the new head of ideas. Cotton will be focused on creative innovation, including supporting developments for Web3. The agency also promoted Jackson Holst to creative director, his second promotion with the agency in less than two years. In addition, Caitlin McStay and Tom Betsis-Duncan have joined as creative associates.

Carat has announced the pitch win of the brand media business for China Merchants Viking Cruises in mainland China for 2022. Carat will provide integrated media strategy to reach a wider range of its client's target audience.

Creative as a Service (CAAS) business Shuttlerock has appointed Kirsty Traill as chief customer officer. Traill will be responsible for defining the ideal client experience and aligning resources to achieve client outcomes, driving operational efficiencies and building for scale. Traill spent the early part of her career at Hewlett-Packard (HP) where she moved to Japan and then Silicon Valley. Most recently, she was at Snapfish, an ecommerce organisation. She was also at Hootsuite as VP of customer. Traill will continue to be based in the US, working with Shuttlerock’s global teams in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

Global human capital management consultancy Smart WFM has appointed author Andrew Griffiths to the new role of advisor and director of marketing, branding and messaging. Griffiths will work with Smart WFM COO Rob Scott to drive the company’s global marketing, messaging, and branding strategies. He’ll also play an active role in identifying other members to join the new advisory board, focusing on diversity, equity inclusion and belonging (DEIB), environmental sustainability, philanthropy, and global consulting.