Move and win roundup: Week of October 8, 2018

Burson Cohn & Wolfe opened a new office in Shenzhen. The PR agency said it is in response to client demands for international communications services, from the likes of Tencent, Oppo and BGI. Veeco Tang, market leader, and Brenda Zhang, deputy market leader, will helm the new office. It is BCW's fourth office in mainland China. 

Fuji Xerox Singapore hired MOI Global for creative work and Huntington Communications as its PR agency. MOI, a global B2B creative agency, will help drive brand awareness and lead generation, while Huntington will advise on PR initiatives. 

YTL Hotels selected RSVP PR to handle communications duties in Singapore. The lifestyle PR agency will developing the brand's media strategy and influencer engagement programme.

Hagar Singapore, a charity supporting survivors of human trafficking and extreme human rights abuse, appointed DDB Asia as its creative and digital agency, and Singaporean shop Bless Inc Asia as its PR firm. Together the agencies will advise the charity on all areas of creative, media, digital and communications strategies. 

Fundamental Media appointed Rebekka Kristin as managing director for APAC, based in Hong Kong. She was most recently with LinkedIn Asia, which followed a tenure at Haymarket Media (publisher of Campaign Asia-Pacific), where she worked on AsianInvestor and FinanceAsia. UK-based Fundamental provides specialist media intelligence and strategy for the fund-management industry.  

AirAsia appointed BPN Malaysia, which is under the IPG Mediabrands network, as global media agency of record. BPN will create a dedicated team called Red Wings to handle the AirAsia account, including planning, buying and analytics globally. BPN won the mandate following a competitive pitch across 23 markets. 

R/GA hired Drew Klonsky as executive director, business transformation in Australia. He joined from Fahrenheit 212, where he was managing director of the San Francisco office. He leads R/GA's business transformation practice across the Sydney and Melbourne offices, working with the agency's consultants, strategists, designers and branding specialists. 

Reprise Malaysia promoted Afif Azman to group technology director and Thanendran Thanesvaran to group commercial director. Both report to Darren Yuen, Reprise Malaysia MD. 

Imagination appointed John Steere as managing director for China. He was previously president at MyMM, a luxury fashion e-commerce platform in China, owned by Lane Crawford Group and Wharf Holdings HK. He has also held leadership roles at Yooya, McCann, Saatchi X, Visa and Gartner. Based in Shanghai, he will report to Patrick Reid, CEO of Imagination Group.

AIA appointed Mark Walters as head of external communications, reporting to Stephen Thomas, head of group brand and communications. Walters was most recently global director of communications at Dentons, a law firm. He is relocating to Hong Kong from Washington DC. He also has experience wirh KPMG International and FTI Consulting.

Prophet appointed Yu Huang as partner in its Shanghai office, Feifei Xu as associate partner in the Shanghai office, and Dan Vasconcelos as associate partner and creative director in Hong Kong. Yu was previously vice president at Capgemini Consulting. Xu was executive director at Labbrand and Vasconcelos was creative director at JKR London.

World Bowling appointed Singapore-based sports consultancy Reddentes Sports to develop new broadcast properties, manage the distribution of its media rights and explore new commercial opportunities. The agency will oversee the broadcast production and media rights distribution for the upcoming World Bowling Men’s Championships, taking place in Hong Kong from 23 November through 5 December. 

Edelman appointed Melinda Po as managing director in Shanghai, reporting to Jeffrey Yu, president, China. Po most recently was managing partner at Ogilvy Shanghai, which followed a stints at AKQA.

OC&C Strategy Consultants (OC&C) appointed Adam Jin Xu as partner in Greater China, based in Shanghai. He joins from Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), the global strategy consulting group at PwC, where he was a partner leading the Greater China strategy consulting business for its consumer and retail practice since 2014.