The office has hired New Zealand-based Richard Thomas in the upgraded role of managing director, and Andrew Lok from Ogilvy & Mather Guangzhou as executive creative director. Thomas takes over from founding general manager Henley Fondren, who leaves at the end of this month to return to the US, while Lok's role was last held by Paul Tilley.
"Richard believes in the power of brands and he has run his own maverick shop in New Zealand. By investing in people of Richard's caliber, we're building David's initial foundation of creating an independent successful agency that services some of Asia's most progressive clients," said David's regional MD Digby Richards. Thomas ran Generator in New Zealand and prior to that was based in New York with Saatchi & Saatchi.
Lok, who has worked with Batey and BBH in Singapore, returns to the city after a one-year Guangzhou stint, and sees his appointment as an opportunity to take David -- described as a "hot two-seat convertible roadster launched by a luxury automaker, in this case, Ogilvy" -- out for a serious spin.
"I like the fact that Andrew has worked outside Singapore, which gives him an advantage over other Singapore creatives in understanding the ambition of Asian brands at the moment," Richards added.
Describing David as a maverick and entrepreneurial outfit, Richards said the agency was looking to work with like-minded clients to realise its ambition of creating a "highly credentialed network a la Fallon and BBH across Asia". He identified Creative Technologies, Osim and O2 as ambitious like-minded clients that could reside comfortably within David, which counts Singapore's largest bank DBS as a foundation client.
