Move and win roundup: Week of November 6, 2023

We Are Social has appointed Omar Sotomayor as regional executive creative director in Southeast Asia. Before joining the agency, Sotomayor worked for Edelman Singapore as executive creative director and regional community lead. He comes with over 18 years of experience in the advertising industry across three countries, where he swiped accolades from Spikes Asia and New York Festival. Sotomayor will oversee the agency’s creative vision and strategy in the region and manage creative teams in Singapore and Indonesia. Based out of Singapore, Sotomayor will report to Christina Chong, CEO of We Are Social in Southeast Asia.

Team Lewis has expanded its footprint with a new office in Dubai that will open doors with a roster of flagship global accounts, including BlackBerry. Maha Ayash will lead the setup as head of UAE. She joins Team Lewis with substantial experience in providing strategic advice for clients across a wide range of sectors, including mobility, business advocacy, sustainability and aerospace. Before joining Team Lewis, she worked for Four Communications as account director. Ayash is also a member of LinkedIn’s Top Voice programme. This marks the agency’s 25th office.

WPP has appointed Jane Geraghty as chief client officer, effective in January 2024, to succeed Lindsay Pattison, who is moving to become WPP chief people officer. Based in New York, Geraghty will be responsible for leading WPP’s key client relationships and overseeing the company’s global client leaders. Working at Landor & Fitch for over 12 years, she is currently CEO of Landor & Fitch, WPP’s specialist brand and design consultancy, and will remain a board member of Landor & Fitch as executive chairman. Christian Schroeder will be rejoining Landor & Fitch in the newly created role of global president to head the global leadership team and take day-to-day responsibility for the network, reporting to Geraghty.  With more than 30 years of experience working across several agencies in both the advertising and branding and design space, Christian initially joined Landor 24 years ago. Since 2011, he has been part of WPP’s global client leaders team.

Rasic and Partners was appointed as the creative, media and production partner of Australian Native Products. The agency will be working across the entire brand. Australian Native Products is the world’s largest grower of Lemon Myrtle, supplying the ingredient globally to brands across culinary, skincare, cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, beverages, cleaning, and other categories.

Publicis Groupe Hong Kong has appointed Martin Smith as chief strategy officer, who relocates from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong and returns to Publicis, having worked at Saatchi & Saatchi and BBH in the UK. Smith brings back over 20 years of strategic expertise. He will lead the planning function at the agency for clients including Cathay, AXA, Standard Chartered, and New World Development, and drive business transformation and integrated solutions by putting data, creative, media, commerce, CRM and technology together, reporting to Tom Kao, CEO of Publicis Groupe Hong Kong. Before Publicis, he worked as group strategy director for six years at Twelve, a start-up marketing and creative agency, and its parent company Communisis. Prior to that, he was CSO at Geometry Global and Havas Media Group.

David Liu, former chairman of Weber Shandwick China, has announced his retirement in December. Liu joined the agency in 2000, starting as head of corporate communications and public affairs in the Beijing office. He was appointed general manager of the Beijing office in 2004 and managing director of Weber Shandwick China in 2006. Liu was promoted to chairman of Weber Shandwick China in 2012. Back then, he was also China chairman for Interpublic’s Constituency Management Group (CMG), which houses Interpublic's specialist marketing services businesses, including FutureBrand, GolinHarris, Jack Morton, Octagon, and Weber Shandwick. He became a senior consultant for Weber Shandwick China in 2022.

Today the Brave expands and adds senior production and account talent.

• Cosmo Haskard joins as group business director.Haskard will be responsible for leading the agency’s account group. Returned from Canada, he has spent several years at maverick indie agency Zulu Alpha Kilo. With over a decade of experience in adland building trusted client partnerships across three continents, he has also worked in London at adam&eveDDB.
• Kate Gregson joins as operations manager. Gregson will be supporting operations director Alistair Pratten. With over 15 years of experience working at creative agencies in the UK, Australia & the US, including TBWA, Johannes Leonardo, Special Group and The Royals, she will be leveraging her diverse skills, spanning creative services, project management and production.

Superson, the global operating system designed for commercial creativity, has announced its expansion with the launch of an EMEA hub out of Amsterdam.

• Cathy Desaunois has been appointed as managing director of EMEA to drive growth across the region. She brings over 30 years of experience, having worked in five countries across Europe and scaling global businesses in 17 countries.
• Jussi Solja has been appointed as chief creative officer to lead the creative process and proposition globally, bringing over 30 years of global creative leadership experience both from agency and brands, including Nokia, Virgin Mobile, Honda, Dubai Tourism, Dubizzle, Wizz Air, Supercell, Rovio, Polar, Siemens and Warner Music.

The Hoffman Agency has appointed Dominique Rose Van-Winther as Asia-Pacific managing director to succeed Caroline Hsu, who was promoted to the role of chief global officer last March. Van-Winther will report to Hsu, who will remain based in Asia-Pacific. Hsu joined Hoffman as Asia-Pacific MD in 2017.  In 2020, Hsu was named one of Campaign Asia's Women to Watch, who has since served on the jury of Women to Watch Greater China in 2021. Van-Winther spent over a decade with Weber Shandwick in Asia-Pacific and served as EVP & head of operations, APAC, before leaving the agency in 2022 to run her own consultancy. Prior to moving to Singapore, she worked for PRP Group, a  Weber Shandwick Affiliate company in Moscow, Russia, as vice president, corporate communications & technology. The Hoffman Agency is one of a handful of independent PR consultancies with a global network, with 20 offices across the world. 

Clemenger BBDO has launched Made This, a specialist production company focusing equally on craft and innovation. The relaunched business will use automation and AI to create smarter production techniques and content at scale without losing the craft essential to engaging audiences.

• Vinne Schifferstein Vidal joins to lead Made This as managing director. Vidal set up Media.Monks’ content business in Australia and New Zealand before heading to Europe to oversee the company’s BMW/MINI account in 29 markets.
• Iain Todd joins as general manager operations, who joined Clemenger BBDO a year ago, is also part of the founding team at Made This. Todd was previously national content director at Hogarth, overseeing a team of over 100 production specialists.
• Ainslee Littlemor joins as head of content production from Entropico. Littlemor ’s background working in agency and traditional production makes her well-equipped to navigate the demands of today’s ever-changing media and production landscape.
• Jay Topping joins as Director of Film and Technology and brings a wealth of expertise from his extensive background in post and film direction.
• Callum Smit joins as lead producer.
• Tom Stephens joins as director/editor. 

KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, has appointed Cindy Zhou as its new chief marketing officer. Zhou will be responsible for developing KnowBe4’s global marketing, public relations, and sales development strategy. She brings a wealth of expertise to her new position with over 20 years of experience building high-impact marketing organisations that generate qualified leads, strong sales pipeline, industry awareness, and customer loyalty.  Before joining KnowBe4, Zhou was CMO of SecurityScorecard. Prior to that, she was CMO of LogRhythm and Level Access.

Ogilvy ANZ has appointed Ant Simmons as group creative director, joining the Melbourne team. With more than 20 years of experience in creative leadership and branding roles, Simmons joins from Heartland, where he was the founder of the independent agency, working with an international client base, including Mecca Brands Australia and Heineken Asia Pacific. Simmons was also previously Creative Director at Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne.

Virtue APAC has appointed Martin Soendergaard as executive creative director as the agency experiences significant organic and new client growth. Soendergaard joins Virtue APAC, the agency powered by Vice, from We Are Social Singapore, where he was ECD for more than two years, delivering global and regional work for brands including Samsung, Activision, Amazon Prime Video, and Bandai Namco. Originally from Denmark, Soendergaard has worked internationally for the past 16 years at agencies such as CPB, 360i, and BBDO.

Initiative has promoted Ryan Haeusler to the newly created role of national head of communications design and Emma Greenhalgh to Sydney head of communications design, effective immediately. Haeusler joined Initiative in 2015 and most recently held the role of Sydney head of communications design.  Previously communications design director, Greenhalgh steps into Haeusler’s former role and will remain leading the planning across the IAG portfolio. Greenhalgh reports directly to Haeusler, who will now report directly to chief strategy & product officer Chris Colter.

Claxon has promoted its chief strategy officer Danny Molyneaux, to the newly created role of general manager, effective immediately. The promotion marks the commencement of the agency’s leadership succession plan, which will see Molyneux continue to work alongside CEO Daniel Willis, with the aim to transition into the CEO role by the end of 2024, with Willis moving onto an executive chairman role at that time. Molyneux will be based at Claxon headquarters on the Gold Coast.  

Ruder Finn has been appointed as the agency for communication services for the ESET APAC regional office in Singapore. The contract will last for next year, with the option of renewal for an additional twelve months. ESET is committed to providing enterprises, SMBs, and individual consumers with industry-leading security products and software in over 200 regions and territories.

Kota Murakami, EssenceMediacom Japan's managing director is departing after a 7.5 year stint at the agency. Based out of the agency's Tokyo office, Murakami was promoted to the position of Japan MD in October, 2021 and was reporting to the APAC CEO. He has overseen the merger of Essence and Mediacom in January 2023. In a LinkedIn post, he announced his exit, saying, “[I] made a difficult decision to leave the agency after 7.5 years."  He joined Essence Japan in 2016 as account director and was promoted to MD in 2021. Prior to Essence, Murakami served as global account director at Tag in the United States. 

DoubleVerify has appointed three new leaders across markets in the APAC region, which will help accelerate momentum in the APAC region and strengthen DV’s global presence.

• Muhammad Arif Bijaksana as business director in Indonesia. Bijaksana began his career as an assistant manager for customer service at Bank Mandiri before moving to its digital marketing function and rising to the AVP position of digital marketing. After that, he was head of program & content research - Indonesia at MMA Global.
• Corina Trang Luong as senior sales director in Vietnam. Luong began her career with a tech startup in Paris before moving to technology firms across Singapore and Vietnam, including country manager Vietnam at POKKT (now part of Anymind Group).
• Tinee Cruz as senior sales director in Philippines. With nearly 10 years in marketing, media, and sales, Cruz joins DoubleVerify from InMobi, where she was the country sales lead for the Philippines. 

Hiveminds Innovative Market Solutions, the digital and ecommerce specialist arm of Madison World, won the integrated digital mandate for Wonderchef Home Appliances after a multi-agency pitch. As part of the mandate, HiveMinds Mumbai office will be responsible for the digital performance of owned assets and e-commerce marketplaces, social media management and search engine optimisation (SEO). Wonderchef is one of the most preferred brands in India for premium kitchen appliances and cookware.  

Veridooh has partnered with Mall Media & More to make its world-first independent verification solution for out-of-home advertising available to more advertisers across the market. As part of the deal, all Mall Media & More clients have access to Veridooh’s patented technology, SmartCreative, which independently tracks, measures, and verifies 100% of OOH campaigns. 

Manulife Asia has appointed Sabrina Cheung as chief communications officer, effective 6 November. Based in Hong Kong, Cheung will lead strategic communications, incorporating media relations, thought leadership, social media, colleague communications, content, and events, supporting Manulife Asia across all the markets in which it operates. She will report to both Anne Hammer, Manulife’s global chief communications officer, and Phil Witherington, Manulife Asia’s president and CEO. Cheung, Campaign's 2023 Power List member joins the insurance company from AXA where she was the chief brand and communications officer for Asia and Africa. Prior to that, she has held global and regional leadership communications roles at Cigna International Markets, Adidas Group, the Coca-Cola Company, and McCann WorldGroup.  

Initiative has announced an affiliate agreement with IG Square Pakistan (private) Limited for the launch of its Initiative Pakistan office. The Initiative Pakistan affiliate office will extend the Initiative agency network footprint to 14 different markets across the APAC region. The Initiative affiliate relationship with IG Square Pakistan is effective immediately. IG Square is an Affiliate of IPG Mediabrands representing Universal McCann (UM) Worldwide in Pakistan. Muhammad Sarwar Khan has been CEO of IG Square Pakistan since September 2020.

Jonathan Leow, Viu's former regional PR and corporate communications lead for Asia has left the company. He joined in 2021 and was reporting directly to the vice president of marketing Lavina Tauro,  currently heading regional communications at Viu.

AnyMind Group has entered South Korea with an office in Seoul to help businesses in the market expand internationally. This is the company's 14th market expansion since its launch in 2016.

Australian Out of Home advertising company oOh!media has appointed Georgie Fox to lead its programmatic sales team, which is a new division for programmatic service offerings. Fox was most recently head of investment and partnerships at Matterkind Australia, with over 10 years of experience working in the marketing technology space.  

Are Media has appointed Grace O’Neill as the editor of Elle Australia, as the magazine’s new print relaunch will be in March 2024, almost four years after its axed as part of sweeping closures by then-owners Bauer Media during the Covid-19 pandemic. Before joining Elle, O’Neill was based in London as the global content editor of Harper’s Bazaar Australia. 

The Hershey Company has elevated Neha Khullar to marketing lead of the Philippines, Taiwan, ,  Hong Kong and digital lead of Southeast Asia. Khullar was most recently digital marketing lead of APAC at the company, which she joined in early 2022. Khullar worked for agencies, such as MRM, Iris, and MullenLowe Group in Singapore.