Bates council to drive Asia growth

The decision to form the nine-person council preceded the departure of regional chief operating officer Matthew Godfrey, who is leaving after 17 years to join Publicis as its new Singapore-based region-al head of international clients (first reported in Media Online, February 7). "Bates Asia has never had a lot of globally-aligned clients, but in the last two years we have developed some purely local relationships," said the network's president Jeffery Yu. "Now it's a matter of how we take these across geographies and disciplines," Yu added, citing the network's expanded activation offer, 141. In addition to Yu, the council will comprise the client service heads of eight accounts with the potential to grow into multi-market or multi-discipline assignments -- HSBC, Visa, Nokia, Heineken, Unilever, General Motors, BAT and Honda. Yu pointed to the agency's new relationship with HSBC in Korea, which kicked off early last year when the bank launched in the market, as an example of how it extended the business. "We shared out learnings and best in class practices when they launched in Korea and from this we have been awarded a 360 degree assignment, which will cover Bates and 141's services, as well as PR and interactive." The brand council will be driven by Robbie Bempasciuto, the regional business director on Heineken, who was promoted to international business director as part of a reshuffle to split Godfrey's responsibilities. Bates has also promoted Singapore MD and regional director Peter Skalberg to regional director for Southeast Asia and Singapore CEO, and regional director for Nokia, Simon Lock- year, to Singapore office GM. "Matt has been a very loyal member of the Bates Asia team. He stayed with us through very difficult times. But now that we are growing, he felt he could retire and try something new," said Yu.