Move and win roundup: Week of May 6, 2024

Vero has announced a series of strategic leadership appointments and numerous staff promotions across Southeast Asia. The company has appointed Supreeyaporn Sihawong as chief people officer, Sasha Alwani as chief strategy officer, Thanpitcha Suksawad as chief finance officer, and Umaporn Whittaker-Thompson as chief commercial officer. These new appointments aim to complement the leadership of Brian Griffin, CEO, and Raphael Lachkar, COO. Sihawong has played a key role in expanding the HR team in Thailand, while Alwani has been instrumental in enhancing the firm’s strategic offerings across Asia. Suksawad brings financial expertise from a big-four accounting firm, and Whittaker-Thompson is set to spearhead new partnerships in influencer marketing and commercial communications. Further extending its leadership, Vero has also promoted Lin Kuek to lead its new sustainability communications advisory in Singapore and Pham Hoai Anh, who will be expanding the firm’s operations in Vietnam, focusing on Hanoi. Additionally, the firm has also announced a total of 28 promotions across its offices in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar, currently employing 260 PR and creative experts. 

VaynerMedia has hired Melanie Cook as its new head of strategy and insights for APAC. Cook, who has replaced Alex Erasmus, will spearhead the regional strategy team to help brands shape their narrative in a way that connects with real audiences; guiding brands through dynamic 'consumer-up' strategies that prioritise relevance and business outcomes over the traditional 'brand-down' approach. Before joining VaynerMedia, Cook was the regional head of strategy at MRM Menat. She will report to Tim Lindley, the managing director for APAC. 

Adtech platform DoubleVerify has announced a slew of promotions and new hires: 

• Conrad Tallariti, previously regional vice president of sales, will assume the role of managing director for Asia Pacific. Tallariti will spearhead operations across the APAC region, driving growth and business momentum.  
• Following DoubleVerify’s acquisition of Scibids AI, Rahul Vasudev will be stepping into the role of regional vice president for APAC, with a focus on Scibids' go-to-markets. 
• Marty Buragay joins as global director, global client and agency partnerships for APAC, to enhance DV’s work with global brands across the region. Bringing over a decade of experience in solutions strategy and management, Buragaya’s previous organisations include Uber, Meta, and Diageo. 
• As sales director for Thailand, Jantra Khonrangde (Joy) will accelerate momentum and strengthen DV’s in-market presence. Khonrangde previously worked at companies like Ascend Group, Hybrid Theory and Innity. 
• Junny Yiu, as senior business director, North Asia, will be responsible for expanding and solidifying DV's business in key North Asia Markets, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. She previously drove SSP adoption at Hivestack and also counts Verizon and Yahoo as earlier associations.   

Dept has hired Brad Stevens as the executive creative director for the region. Stevens has worked with agencies like Enigma, M&C Saatchi, Landor (Paris Office), FutureBrand, and Six Black Pens. In this newly created role, Stevens will be responsible for delivering innovative and disruptive work for the agency’s clients. Based out of Sydney, he will also serve as the face and voice of creativity for the team in Australia, collaborating closely with the leadership team to build processes and structures that elevate the quality of creative output. 

Bud Communications has expanded into the Australian market to bolster its regional capabilities. Bud has already started providing integrated PR and content solutions to clients including GumGum, Yellow Canary, NP Digital, Symbio and Choco-Up, as well as content production for Impact.com. Leading the charge in the local market is Richie Kenzie, appointed as the Australia lead for Bud Communications.  

B&K (Batlivala & Karani), one of the oldest financial services groups in India, has appointed Pitchfork Partners as its integrated communications partner. Under this mandate, Pitchfork will work towards enhancing the group’s external reach through strategic media relations, thought leadership and social media outreach.  

Tumi has appointed Aris Maroulis as the new VP for Asia-Pacific and Middle East, with immediate effect. Based in Hong Kong, Maroulis will be responsible for building the brand, overseeing operations, and managing overall business in the region. Maroulis will report directly to Subrata Dutta, president, Asia-Pacific and Middle East at Samsonite. 

PHD has won the Oppo media business in several Asia markets including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh. The appointment covers online and offline media planning and strategy and thought leadership. The duties are managed out of Malaysia, which is Oppo’s APAC hub, and includes working with the Oppo HQ team in China and other OMG offices to roll out various initiatives and strategies for global markets.  

GrowthOps Asia has been selected by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as the digital marketing agency to spearhead digital content development, event coverage, and performance media to support RSPO's mission of making palm oil sustainable. GrowthOps Asia commenced its tenure by covering the RSPO’s flagship event, the annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RT2023) in Jakarta last October 2023. They have since filmed sessions with smallholder farmers in Malaysia and Indonesia while editing and curating content from RSPO's global markets.

Havas Hong Kong has promoted Andrew Cawte to CEO of Havas Media Network and Ricky Lam to CEO of Havas Creative, effective immediately. The appointments follow three years of growth, including the launch of new events and social content business units. Cawte, who has been managing director of Havas Media in Hong Kong since 2015, successfully launched event and sports marketing business Havas Play in 2023. Lam has taken on the leadership role of Havas Creative Hong Kong since 2016 after working in Beijing and Shanghai for over five years.

Havas India has announced a significant leadership transition across three key agencies under the Havas Creative Network India umbrella, including Havas Worldwide India (creative), Conran Design Mumbai (brand design), and Havas CX India (customer experience):

• Kundan Joshee, managing partner, Havas Worldwide India, has been promoted as managing director of the India operations.
• Anupama Ramaswamy, chief creative officer, Havas Worldwide India, takes on the additional responsibility of joint managing director.
• Geet Nazir, managingp partner of Conran Design Mumbai, has been elevated to managing director of the agency.
• Prashant Tekwani, managing partner, Havas CX India, has been elevated to managing director of both Havas CX India and Ekino (technology) India.

GroupM has appointed Marc Lomas as managing director to lead and expand GroupM’s commerce and retail media business in Australia and New Zealand, supporting EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker’s teams. Lomas has over 20 years of experience in the industry working with blue-chip brands developing performance marketing and adtech capability in Australia, the UK and the US. Most recently, he spent seven years at Amazon Ads as global head of performance for Amazon DSP out of New York, and as head of agency sales in Australia. 

Customer insights platform Ideally has appointed Maura Halpin to the newly created role of marketing lead, effective immediately. Halpin’s immediate remit will be to develop and implement Ideally’s overarching marketing strategy, championing a data-driven approach. Her role has global responsibilities. Halpin spent 11 years at Google ANZ in sales product strategy, creative innovation and consumer marketing roles, most recently as Go-to-Market Lead for Google’s Consumer Apps portfolio in Australia.

BBH India has made two senior-level planning appointments with Ankit Sharma and Layla Khan joining the agency as senior VPs of strategy. Sharma and Khan will be based out of the agency’s offices in Gurugram and Mumbai respectively where both will spearhead the strategic direction on key client relationships. Sharma's expertise lies in applying human behaviour, design thinking and semiotics to brand building across agencies such as DY Works, JWT, Analytics Quotient, McCann Worldgroup and FCB India. At Wunderman Thompson (now VML), Mullen Lowe Group, and Contract Advertising (WPP) in India and Sri Lanka, Khan has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of global brands such as HSBC, Kellogg’s, De Beers, Yardley London, Upfield Flora and Unilever.

Mediacorp has named Jacqui Lim as chief commercial officer, effective from 3 June 2024. In this new role, Lim will be instrumental in charting a roadmap for boosting revenue streams, developing a commercial strategy aligned with Mediacorp’s efforts to constantly innovate and augment its offerings for audiences and advertisers. She will lead the Commercial Group in revenue generation and client engagement, collaborating with business units and partners to provide targeted solutions across Mediacorp’s wide range of IPs and platforms. Lim announced her departure as Havas Media Group Singapore CEO and regional chief growth officer of Havas Group last week after working for nearly a decade with the agency.  Prior to Havas, she worked at Publicis Media and Omnicom Media Group. 

CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) made three new appointments to its Asia Pacific leadership team. Karen Lay joins as director of commercial distribution, Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, her primary role is to spearhead CNNIC's distribution to non-residential customers, including hotels, and businesses across the region. She has held senior positions at Disney/ESPN, Lagardère Sports, WWE and SportFive. Sally Young returns to CNN in a leadership role driving CNN’s advertising sales operations with a renewed focus on Greater China. Based in Hong Kong, Young will develop strategic partnerships and foster relationships with key clients and agencies through creating global and regional campaigns. Additionally, Kimmy Ho has been promoted to senior director, content sales and licensing. 

Twilio has appointed Chris Koehler as chief marketing officer. Koehler brings over 25 years of expertise in customer engagement and marketing technology. He will report to CEO Khozema Shipchandler and oversee Twilio's global marketing strategy, focusing on expanding brand awareness in Twilio’s key markets and amplifying product innovation.  Prior to Twilio, Koehler served as CMO at Box. He has spent more than 25 years leading marketing, customer success, solution consulting, demand generation, and enablement teams at Adobe Systems, E*TRADE Financial, SunTrust Bank, and Claritas.  

Havas Creative China has elevated Leo Li to vice president of Havas Creative Guangzhou. In his new role, Li will lead Havas Creative Guangzhou and report to Ben Sun, CEO of Havas Creative China.  Li joined Havas back in 2001 and has worked with international and domestic clients such as P&G, MARS, Huawei, Honor, BMW and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

Rokt, the leading ecommerce technology company, has appointed Marc Allsop as head of EMEA and Mick O'Brien as head of Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). The executives will focus on business development in their respective markets and report directly to chief revenue officer Craig Galvin. Allsop previously served in global leadership roles at American Express and Aimia. Most recently, he served as chief commercial officer at Ecrebo. O'Brien is a sales leader with more than 20 years of experience in the Australian technology industry, who most recently served as VP of sales, JAPAC, at EasySend. Prior to that, he was managing director of JAPAC for Datorama.

Visa has appointed Sujai Raina as the country manager for India. In his new role, Raina will be responsible for the India business. He joined Visa in 2020 and previously served as vice president and head of business development in India. In addition to his responsibilities as country manager, he will continue to lead the business development of Visa in India.

FCB Interface, integrated creative agency from FCB Group India, won the creative mandate for the Philips Kitchen Appliances and Philips Garment Care business of Versuni India Home Solutions Limited (formerly Philips Domestic Appliances India Limited). This achievement solidifies FCB Interface's position as a powerhouse in the marketing and communication realm. Under this mandate, FCB Interface will spearhead the marketing and communication strategies for a range of innovative Philips products, including Garment Steamers, Steam irons, Airfryers and Mixer Grinders.

Dentsu India has announced the departure of Sapna Arora, its former chief client officer. Arora, who joined the agency in January 2023, played a key role in advancing client solutions and contributing to the network's growth. Before joining Dentsu, she had been working at OLX Group for four years as India CMO and global brand head. Prior to that, she worked for Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd, Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, and P&G. Dentsu did not name a successor, and according to her LinkedIn profile page, Arora joined IIITD Innovation & Incubation Center as director in May.

Rhian Mason will leave Emotive after three years serving three years as head of social, talent and partnerships. Mason joined the creative agency in early 2021 as head of content distribution. Before joining Emotive, she worked at DDB’s Mango Communications as head of social and content. Prior to that, she worked for Mediabrands in Australia and the UK for over five years.

Indian boutique creative agency The Womb has appointed Anurag Gupta as its new CEO, effective from May 2nd, to drive the expansion of its strategic and creative capabilities, especially in data-dependent mid and bottom funnel work. Gupta has considerable experience in this space, having developed Malaysian-based performance agency ADA into one of Southeast Asia's largest performance networks for the past six years as COO. The Womb, meanwhile has also grown with considerable success in India, ranked among the top three most effective agencies in Asia, The Womb counts Vini, Mahindra, Britannia, Cipla, Sebamed, Symphony, Piramal Finance, Kotak, and Lenskart as some of its clients. Gupta brings a unique blend of classical training and recent experience in building a tech and data company, having not only worked at ADA, but at leading agencies including DDB Mudra Group, WPP and Wunderman throughout his career.

PHD has won the Vitasoy media business in Hong Kong while retaining the remit in mainland China following a pitch. The agency is responsible for media planning and buying for all Vitasoy brands in both markets, including Vitasoy and Vita Lemon Tea. PHD Hong Kong was retained for their capabilities in delivering innovative media solutions, strategic vision, digital transformation, and overall industry expertise.

Clemenger BBDO has hired global creative director Adrián Flores as chief creative officer. Flores returns to Australia after more than a decade in creative leadership roles internationally at agencies including Publicis New York and London, FCB New York, Marcel New York, and VaynerMedia. He joins from New York-based Robot, the brand consultancy arm of The SpringHill Company, a consumer and entertainment group co-founded by LeBron James. Flores spent three years as vice president of creative at the marketing and media agency, connecting clients, including Google and Fortnite, and the group’s entertainment properties, Uninterrupted and The Shop, with customers through culture. 

TBWA has hired Ellie Brocklehurst as chief marketing officer for Asia. This is a new role for the agency, a key member of the leadership team responsible for elevating the branding, communications and marketing efforts of the agency. Brocklehurst was most recently head of growth marketing at Wunderman Thompson/VML. During her four years at the agency, Brocklehurst was responsible for the growth marketing & communications function across Asia, including lead-gen marketing initiatives, client events, media relations and thought leadership. Most recently, her scope included working with in-market leaders and client teams to identify key growth opportunities with APAC’s top clients.  

Brand strategy and design consultancy Houston has appointed Alex Creamer as creative director and Michelle Teh as design director. Most recently creative director at Interbrand and prior to that at RE, Creamer has helped reshape some of Australia’s biggest brands including McDonald's, Sydney Fish Market and Westpac. Teh brings more than 14 years of industry experience garnered from roles in London, Amsterdam and Sydney to Houston. Most recently, she worked at Nike, shaping brand experiences and storytelling within the brand’s retail fleet across the EMEA region.