Kien Eng Tan named Dentsu Malaysia CEO

Dentsu Malaysia has appointed Kien Eng Tan as chief executive officer, effective Monday (February 8). Tan, formerly CEO of Publicis Groupe Malaysia, will report to Ashish Bhasin, CEO of Dentsu Asia Pacific.

Nicky Lim, the current chief executive officer, is moving on from his role after six years, to pursue other interests, and leaves on February 15. 

In his role as CEO Tan will be responsible for continuing the network's business’ transformation journey and driving integration across media, creative and CXM (customer experience management) service lines, the company said.

“The market has never been more dynamic with COVID-19 rewriting consumer behaviour and therefore, expectations of the brands they engage with," Tan said in a release. "Dentsu is excellently placed to capitalise on this pivot for its clients, and I am looking forward to working with the teams to develop and grow these opportunities.”

Already this year, Dentsu has announced leadership changes in China (see "Deric Wong leaves OMG Hong Kong CEO post to lead Dentsu in China"), Hong Kong (see "Dentsu promotes Simone Tam to Hong Kong head") and its APAC media service line (see "Dentsu promotes Prerna Mehrotra to APAC media CEO"). In addition, the network has confirmed that its iProspect network would swallow up Vizeum, consolidated operations in Australia, and put its Tokyo HQ up for sale.