Starcom MediaVest Group hires Tess Caven as human experience strategy leader for Asia-Pacific

Caven’s role is to support and underpin the Publicis Groupe agency’s objective in creating more engaging brand experiences for clients and their audiences.

She has spent the last 15 years working in Asia where she managed the Cathay Pacific media account for McCann Erickson in the first five years and helped managed regional and global client accounts for MEC in the last ten years.

Her key priorities now will be to lead the implementation of SMG’s human experiences centres while developing a network of strategists to work across multinational clients for this region.

She will also be working closely with the network’s regional leadership team as well as collaborate with Rajesh Mahtani, executive director of strategy and analytics for Southeast Asia.

Caven will report to Laura Krajecki, chief consumer officer, who said: “We’re thrilled to have Tess on board and her appointment is further testament to SMG’s commitment to elevate the discipline of human understanding across our regional agency network.”

Krajecki added: “As a result of her extensive experience, Tess is an astute individual who is attuned to understanding human behavior and distilling that knowledge into compelling brand strategies that guide communications plans. I’m excited to see what she’ll bring to the SMG equation and look forward to her contribution in SMG’s evolution into a human experience company”, concluded Krajecki.

Caven said: "I’m very excited to be joining Starcom MediaVest Group in Asia-Pacific. I believe that SMG has a very strong vision for how clients can engage with consumers in this fast-changing communications world and most importantly has the talent and resources to make that vision come to life and produce success for clients and company alike.”