Move and win roundup: We Are Social, AXA, Infiniti, Trade Desk, Vizeum, more

PEOPLE MOVES

We Are Social hired Christina Chong, previously managing director with Bates CHI & Partners, as MD in Singapore. She takes over from Don Anderson, who left the MD role in March to join YouTube. Simon Kemp, regional managing partner, has been managing the Singapore business in the interim. Prior to Bates CHI & Partners, Chong spent eight years at BBH where she held the roles of managing partner and head of account management.

AXA Asia appointed Frédéric Tardy as regional chief marketing, digital, data and customer officer, based in Hong Kong and reporting to Jean-Louis Laurent Josi, regional CEO. Tardy was previously chief marketing and distribution officer of AXA Group, based in Paris. He formerly served as CEO of L’Atelier US BNP Paribas, the BNP Paribas Innovation Lab in Silicon Valley.

The Trade Desk hired Duncan Chamberlain, previously senior director of ad solutions for APAC at PubMatic, as senior director, business development, for Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, his role will include Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

MRM//McCann appointed Steven Hua and Richard Wang as GM and creative partner, respectively, in Beijing. Hua was most recently a business director for Isobar Shanghai and has experience with DDB, McCann Health, and Publicis 133. He will report to Mike Zeng, MD of MRM//McCann China. Wang's role is a new one, overseeing creative development for all accounts and reporting to Hua. Wang has previously been a creative director with DDB and has run his own agency.

Shiseido Hong Kong has hired Zaheer Nooruddin as head of digital. Reporting to Morgan Tan, president of Shiseido Hong Kong, Nooruddin will take charge of specialist units focussing on digital transformation, including Consumer Insight and Customer Experience (CICE), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), UX Design (UXD) and Digital Delivery (DD). Prior to this, he was executive director and head of digital innovation at Golin Hong Kong.

Vizeum opened an office in Ho Chi Minh and appointed Navin Dhanpal as managing director of Vizeum Vietnam, which is currently servicing Dentsu Aegis Network Vietnam’s latest client, Abbott, and other clients including Manulife and Panasonic. Dhanpal was previously  executive planning director, Vizeum Vietnam, and executive planning director, Dentsu Media Vietnam.

BBDO Asia appointed Nick Morrell as regional business director, based in Singapore. He has more than 19 years in the industry, and most recently ran the global Pampers business at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore. he has also worked with Samsung, McDonald’s, Nestlé, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Lego, Renault and P&G.

Infiniti appointed Trevor Hale, formerly director of communications for Ford in the Middle East and Africa, to succeed Stefan Weinmann as head of global communications. Weinmann moves to general manager of communications for Infiniti EMEA, based in Rolle, Switzerland.

Digital marketing outfit Asia Pacific Digitial (APD) appointed Dentsu Aegis' former head of M&A, Kym Pfitzner, to its advisory board.Pfitzner has more than 25 years of leadership experience in advertising and media in the region, having previously held head of M&A, CEO and COO roles with Dentsu Aegis Network.

BBDO Malaysia appointed Rafiq Ridzwan as head of planning after 15 years at J. Walter Thompson in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Brand and design agency Hulsbosch appointed Simon Hong as executive creative director. He was most recently global principal at Wolff Olins.

DatViet Vac Media (DVM) appointed Samarjit Rajkumar as chief operating officer. He joins from Vizeum, where he was executive vice-president, Mumbai office head and head of national strategy.

Edelman hired Stevie Weber as global creative strategist/planner to lead major client engagements in health and FMCG; Bea Atienza as Singapore strategy director; and Stacey Rodrigues as Singapore senior content producer and newsroom lead.

Jamie Phua has a new job as associate account director at BBDO Beijing servicing the Bayer Women's healthcare and Mars petcare accounts. Previously, she was a regional account manager for MasterCard at Digital Arts Network Singapore, where she was the main point of contact for the client in the SEA region.

VIPKID, an e-learning company providing the American elementary school experience to Chinese children online, has appointed Sophia Xu as VP of marketing. Xu made this career move after 10+ years in the FMCG marketing industry for Mars, Coca-Cola and Unilever in China.

WINS AND DEALS

The Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore re-appointed The Hoffman Agency Singapore as its public relations agency-of-record for the Singapore Green Building Week (SGBW) 2016.

Following a competitive pitch, BP Australia expanded its existing relationship with Ogilvy from to include all below-the-line creative, promotions, video and digital support. The relationship will deliver lower costs to BP through technology and automation, according to the agency.

Communications provider M1 retained Zenith Singapore for its media planning and buying. Zenith has held the account since 2010.

Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE) greenlighted its second original production, a "structured reality" series focused on Hong Kong and entitled "The Ultimate BROcation". The series will be produced by Endemol Shine Group, the global production company behind Big Brother and MasterChef, with the Hong Kong Tourism Board as anchor sponsor. The show will premiere exclusively on CTE’s top-rated action entertainment channel, KIX.

Mediacorp's bilingual OTT service, Toggle, announced that it will launch Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s Mandarin edutainment kids channel, Miao Mi, in Singapore. The channel will be added to the existing Toggle Prime package at no additional cost.