Move and win roundup: Week of November 5, 2018

VMLY&R named Paul Nagy as regional chief creative officer for Australia and New Zealand. He was formerly CCO for Australia. The agency also appointed Debbi Vandeven, formerly global CCO of VML, as global CCO for the recently merged agency. VMLY&R also named regional CCOs for North America (John Godsey and Jason Xenopoulos), Europe (Jaime Mandelbaum), LATAM (Martin “Nino” Goldberg), South Africa (Ryan McManus), and Middle East and North Africa (Kalpesh Patankar), but said it is still "actively recruiting" a regional CCO for APAC.

BBH China has been appointed the creative agency of Zhen Guo Li  (真果粒), a milk beverage brand owned by China’s dairy manufacturer Mengniu. As part of this appointment, BBH China will be responsible for creative strategy, integrated marketing communications and packaging design.

OMD Australia appointed Penny Shell to Melbourne head of product and national head of planning. She joins from Starcom, where she spent the last three of her six-year tenure with them as head of strategy. She will report to Dianne Richardson, managing director of OMD Melbourne and Gavin Gibson, chief strategy officer of OMD Australia, effective December 3.

Ogilvy Australia promoted Sally Kissane and Michelle Holland to co-managing directors of Ogilvy Sydney and Gavin MacMillan and Michael McEwan to co-managing directors in Melbourne. Both duos were previously managing partners for three years in their respective offices, and both report to Ogilvy Australia CEO David Fox.

Digital ad platform Exponential has appointed Alex LeMersier as sales director for Singapore, responsible for revenues from new and existing advertisers and agencies, while developing the Singapore team.

MullenLowe Lintas Group has hired Heather Gupta as Group HR director, responsible for three agencies – Lowe Lintas, Mullen Lintas and PointNine Lintas. Gupta launched her HR career with the agency back in 2005 and has subsequently held HR positions with The UTV Group and The 120 Media Collective. She takes over from Michelle Suradkar, the current Group Chief HR Officer, who is taking a break from work for personal reasons. 

Zee Entertainment’s digital entertainment platform, ZEE5, has partnered with Publicis Capital to drive ZEE5’s international communications, creative campaigns and digital initiatives from the agency’s Mumbai office.

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) announced the election of directors to its 2018-2019 board. First-time directors elected were Greg Armshaw (Brightcove), Ernest Cu (Globe), Birathon Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya (True Corporation), Dr Roger Tong (AsiaSat) and Tony Zameczkowski (Netflix). Re-elected were Joe Welch (21st Century Fox – and current AVIA Chairman), Rohit D’Silva (FOX Networks Group Asia) and Alexandre Muller (TV5MONDE). They join existing directors Desmond Chan (TVB), Belinda Lui (WarnerMedia), Amit Malhotra (The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia) and Ricky Ow (Turner International).

Content marketing platform Outbrain has appointed Flourx as its formal reseller in the Philippines for digital media products and solutions, led by Celine Veloso, who previously served as business development director of Outbrain in Singapore, for over four years.

Viu, the OTT video service of PCCW Media Group, acquired exclusive Asia rights to air a new romance series, titled Encounter, from South Korea’s entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM. The series premieres on November 28 in Korea and will be streamed on Viu in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, subtitled in local languages and as little as four hours after telecast in Korea.