Cooper's appointment as North and Southeast Asia managing director comes less than a year after Ford moved its regional marketing and sales headquarters from Michigan to Bangkok. An advertising veteran who once ran his own agency, Cooper managed Ford and its three other brands in more than 50 markets from JWT Detroit just before taking up his new role. He moves to Singapore at a time when Ford is looking to bring its Asia sales - currently about 360,000 vehicles a year - on a par with US and European levels by 2005. Ford has also been expanding its relationship with JWT in Asia. Last year, JWT's China office won the joint-venture Changan Ford business.
The restructuring will not change the scope of responsibilities of JWT's North and Southeast Asia area directors - Shanghai-based Tom Doctoroff and Bangkok-based Mark Webster. The heads of the three other regions - Mark Khanna (central Asia), Ambar Brahmachary (Japan) and Ralf Harding (Australasia) - will report to regional chairman Miles Colebrook.