Move and win roundup: Havas, Publicis, DAN, MEC, Iris, Air China, more

PEOPLE MOVES

Publicis Communications promoted Steve Walls to chief strategy officer in Singapore, a newly created role reporting to CEO Lou Dela Pena. Prior to his promotion he was executive planning director at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore.

Edelman appointed Tony Tao as Southeast Asia corporate reputation managing director, effective immediately, reporting to Amanda Goh, Singapore CEO. Prior to this he spent 16 years at Edelman China.

Havas Worldwide Singapore named Abel Sim as head of strategy and planning. He was most recently head of strategy at Gyro Singapore and will report to Andrea Conyard, group managing director of Havas Creative Group Singapore.

Dentsu Aegis Network appointed Philip Zohrab to the newly created role of chief data officer for Australia and New Zealand, charged with ensuring "the group is delivering a best in class proposition around data". He joins from iProspect Singapore, where he was regional managing director, digital technology operations.

MEC appointed Gurpreet Wadhwa, formerly business director with Maxus India, as head of digital in Vietnam, reporting to Arup Bansal, managing director of MEC Vietnam.

Independent creative agency Imagination appointed Will Halliday as director of strategy. Based in Sydney, he previously led strategy teams at marketing agency Wunderman and customer experience agency MercerBell.

Iris Worldwide hired Natalie Cooke as business director, following the recent appointment of Kiran Aswani as business head, who will spearhead the healthcare and consumer marketing capabilities of the agency. Cooke, joins from Band Group.

Adknowledge Asia appointed Ted Kim (Tae-Woo) as country director for Korea, responsible for expanding the team, raising the company’s profile and leading the sales and operational teams. He will report to Damien Lavin, chief revenue officer for Adknowledge Asia, and joins from Teads.tv, where he was managing director for Korea.

Programmatic marketing software provider DataXu appointed Alvin Wong, formerly APAC regional director at Sizmek, as head of sales, Southeast Asia, following expansion into Singapore, Sydney and Bangalore. He will be responsible for partnering with new and existing customers to help them leverage DataXu’s technology to improve marketing ROI and customer engagement.

Minute Media, the parent company of sports media platform 90min, appointed Mark McFarlane as general manager, Asia Pacific. Minute Media has also announced the opening of a Singapore office to serve the growing brand in the region. Prior to joining Minute Media, McFarlane served as VP for partnerships and sales at Fox Sports and commercial director at Eurosport.

Burson-Marsteller made two new additions to its Shanghai leadership: Rebecca Chiou as senior director of sports marketing and branding, and Chris Luan as director of healthcare. Choiu joins from DeVries Global, where she was a director specialising in sports marketing and large-scale event management. Luan was previously at APCO Worldwide, where she advised leading healthcare brands including GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi.

Parker & Partners, part of Ogilvy PR in Australia, appointed Nicole Quinn as director of government relations. She joins from the Institute for Regional Security, and has more than 25 years’ experience of advocacy and stakeholder relations within the government, covering defence, technology, national security and business.

Nexus Media hired Barrie C Goodridge as a shareholder and executive director and Karen Ko, formerly with Mediaworks Asia, as general manager. 

FleishmanHillard boosted its India team by hiring Munavar Attari as senior vice president and Mumbai general manager. Previously at Rediffusion/Edelman, Attari was senior leader on the Tata Group account. At Fleishman, he will focus on media relations, issues management and crisis communications.

Global production and creation agency Chimney Group appointed Bo Thorp as managing director of Chimney Australia. His background is running TV and radio stations across Europe.

BUSINESS WINS

Air China chose J. Walter Thompson Beijing to create both a global brand strategy and an integrated campaign for multiple international markets, including Germany, England, France, Canada, and the US. The decision marks the first time the airline has embarked on a concerted international push to build its brand profile outside of China, according to the agency. JWT will work as part of a multidisciplinary WPP 'Air China Dream Team' with Burson-Marsteller, Taylor Nelson Sofres and Mediacom.

Australian theme park Dreamworld appointed Grey Sydney as its creative agency, to focus on driving local, national and international visits. The park appointed Match Media as its media agency last year.

JMI, part of CSM Sport & Entertainment, announced that NTT Communications will become Technology Partner for the McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team, under a multi-year agreement. 

Retailer and distributor Town House designated Prime as its Hong Kong PR agency for the Alessi brand, following a pitch against undisclosed agencies.

Asian Integrated Media was appointed by Condé Nast International to represent its portfolio of Conde Nast Traveller editions in Asia. The appointment covers the print and digital Condé Nast Traveller portfolio in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, China, India and Russia. The appointment is effective August 1.

Effective July 1 Nexus Media was appointed as exclusive worldwide sales representative for The Peninsula Magazine and Journeys, the inflight magazine for MetroJet, all produced by publisher The Antithesis. Additionally Nexus was appointed by Pace Communications as the exclusive sales representative for Asia for Four Seasons Magazine and by Conde Nast Traveler, China, as representative in Hong Kong , Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.