McBrain, who has headed up the Bates/141, Ogilvy and MindShare brands in Cambodia for the past year, will move to the Indonesian capital to oversee the recently merged Bates/David operation.
He replaces Nitin Puri who moves back to the Gulf region to join Bates PanGulf in Oman after a three-year stint in Indonesia.
In Cambodia, McBrain steered the launch of OgilvyAction, and won new clients including Tiger, Caltex, Unilever, BBC World and the NGO World Vision. He was previously in a regional role at Saatchi & Saatchi Malaysia, handling key clients Tiger and Guinness.
“I planned to be in Cambodia for two years, in theory. But as Nitin was returning to Pan Gulf and as our new business targets have been met a year ahead of schedule, Digby (Richard, BatesAsia’s COO) wanted to move me to Jakarta quickly,” said McBrain.
McBrain’s successor is an overseas candidate who has yet to be announced.
BatesAsia/141 Indochina chief executive officer Peter Sandor will assume his duties in the meantime.