Trading places, Greater China: Ma, Cruz, Potter, Soetanto, Gaywood, Lo and more

Jeff Ma (pictured) has commenced work at The Woolmark Company as marketing vice president for Greater China. He departed Tsingtao Beer in February. Previously as deputy GM of brand management, he led the repositioning of Tsingtao's main brand and the Lao Shan sub-brand. 

AKQA has appointed Eric Cruz as executive creative director of its Shanghai office. He will look after clients such as Budweiser, Nike and Tencent. Before joining AKQA, he held the ECD seat at Leo Burnett Malaysia, where he oversaw creative output for brands like Petronas, Maxis and Proton.

Alongside the news of BBDO's Chris Thomas being promoted to CEO of the Americas, Carol Potter will be leaving her role as Greater China president and chief executive officer. Succeeding her will be the current management team: Tze Kiat Tan is promoted from managing director to CEO; Wai Foong Leong becomes chairman and chief creative officer; and Hans Lopez-Vito takes the chief strategy officer spot.

Roy Soetanto joined Cheil Taiwan in a newly-created position as chief operating officer cum managing partner of the agency's 100+ employess. Prior to joining Cheil, Soetanto worked at DDB Taiwan as president and managing director for more than seven years.

Cohn & Wolfe has announced the new managing director for mainland China to be 18-year PR veteran Harriet Gaywood. She will be taking over Lydia Shen, who is leaving the company to spend more time with her family. Gaywood joined the firm from ReuterPR.

Leo Burnett Hong Kong promoted Alfred Wong and Brian Ma to joint-ECDs to replace chief creative officer Connie Lo who has decided to leave after 15 years at the agency. Wong and Ma had been part of a creative partnership for the past 12 years as deputy executive creative directors.

William Lai is now the search advertising lead for Taiwan and Hong Kong at Microsoft Advertising, responsible for driving search revenue and advertiser satisfaction for Bing. Before January 2015 he was a business director at the company.

Youku Tudou has launched two new business units, Heyi Studios and Innovative Marketing, and appointed chief content officer Sunny Xiangyang Zhu and chief marketing officer Yawei Dong to head the units respectively. Edward Su has also joined as chief operating officer after serving as China CEO for Havas Worldwide for more than four years.

Sean Dinsmore is now chief creative officer at Billboard Radio China to oversee creation and development of new music content for Billboard's first ever digital radio venture in China. He was previously creative director for GFM.FM, a digital radio platform.

McCann Worldgroup has appointed Ronald Sun as managing director of SGM Works. He will lead the operation of the Chevrolet team and report to Greater China CEO Jesse Lin. Most recently, Sun served as national marketing director of Heineken China.