Move and win roundup: Cheil, WE, EON, McCann, more

PEOPLE MOVES 

Cheil Worldwide hired Satit Jantawiwat, previously chief creative officer at J. Walter Thompson Bangkok, as chief creative officer of Cheil Thailand. Prior to JWT, he was creative group head at TBWA Thailand.

WE Communications hired Jeremy Seow as managing director in Singapore. Seow was previously MD of Zeno Group, and will take over from Carolyn Camoens, who is now senior vice president for Southeast Asia. 

Richard Arboleda was promoted to president and COO of EON The Stakeholder Relations Group from his previous position as PR managing director. He joined EON in 2014 and has also worked for Wyeth and Samsung. Other promotions include Mori Rodriguez to chief innovation officer and Jay Gaite as chief finance officer.

McCann Worldgroup Malaysia made five new hires including business directors Geraldine Yong, Kevin Yeoh and Jeannette Laws. Yong was previously the business director of Havas Worldwide, Yeoh was formerly business director with Grey Group and Laws was group brand director of McCann KL. Meanwhile, the agency named Yow Kuan Wai, previously associate creative director at FCB, as associate creative director, and Irene Kuan, formerly senior account manager at Havas, as associate brand director.

Communications consultancy Instinctif Partners appointed Crystal Chan (陳慧鈴) as partner and general manager in its Hong Kong office. She joins from The Women’s Foundation, where she was communications director.

GroupM China promoted Rycan Di (底飞) to chief investment officer of its trading team, reporting directly to CEO Patrick Xu and replacing 金万钧 who will stay as a special project consultant. Di, who joined GroupM in 2015 as managing director of GroupM Trading (GMT), will also become a member of the GroupM China executive committee.

Simon Stacey will assume the role of ECD for Southeast and North Asia at Fitch from 16 January 2017 onwards. He will direct the agency’s overall design function across the region from the Singapore office, and will lead the teams based in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Desmond Chan (陈永康), formerly EVP and chief growth officer for Greater China at Grey, has joined Digital Domain China as COO.

Johan Vakidis is currently the digital creative director at Walt Disney Company China after taking a breather for eight months. Previously, he was group executive creative director at R/GA Shanghai and before that, executive creative director at AKQA China.

Jocelyn Tse (謝韻儀) has a new job as the head of strategic planning for J. Walter Thompson Hong Kong. Prior to this, she was general manager for FCB Hong Kong for more than one year until she quit in October 2016.

Freddie Yuan (袁學智) has moved on to client-side to be Foxconn’s CMO after spending almost three years as chief creative officer at VML IM2.0 China.

Since September, Peirong Yang (杨佩蓉) has been assistant vice president of communications for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions China. Before that, she supported Dentsu Aegis Network in establishing its corporate communications function in China when she joined the network in April 2013 as a corp comms manager.

Infiniti will appoint Tim Heile as division general manager of marketing and PR of Dongfeng Infiniti, its Chinese joint venture, effective on 1 March 2017. Heile was previously director of marketing of BMW Japan. 

RF Thunder has promoted Jefferson Hou (侯健) and Cathy Gu (顾月莉) to major positions in the network. Hou becomes general manager of RF Thunder Greater China; Gu becomes general manager RF Thunder Shanghai.

Carat Taiwan promoted Y.C. Chu (朱詣璋) to vice chairman and Joanne Liu (劉光萱) to managing director. Chu will provide operational and strategic guidance while Liu will assume responsibility for driving integrated services and long-term business development.

BUSINESS WINS

The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) named J. Walter Thompson Singapore to drive recruitment and lead integrated marketing, communications and events to mark the Navy’s 50th anniversary in 2017. JWT will partner with AsiaPRwerkz and Mindshare on a campaign to celebrate “RSN50”. The agency will also create a recruitment campaign. The contract is for three years.

Hong Kong-based lifestyle PR agency Prime has been appointed to handle domestic PR for lingerie and beachwear brands Calzedonia and Intimissimi. The agency won the 12-month retainer following a competitive pitch.

OTHER

Malaysian multiplatform home shopping network CJ Wow Shop launched a Mandarin language programme on free-to-air TV channel 8TV to diversify its audience reach.