Woodward's new role, which follows 13 years with Carat in Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the last two-and-a-half years in Shanghai, involves him overseeing buying directors at MindShare's Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing offices.
MindShare China chief executive officer, Chris Walton, said: "We have strong buying teams in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, however, Simon's role is to unify then all, which is in addition to the formulation and execution of strategies, including strategic negotiations."
Woodward said that he sees his new job as a challenge because "MindShare is a much bigger agency than I have been working in, with the larger issue being to continue making in-roads into winning new business in a market which is among the most complicated and rapidly moving in the world".
News of Woodward's departure from Carat was announced in February, however, he continued to work with the agency on a project basis in Japan, where he helped to establish a buying system. Carat recently set up Chusen Media K.K. in a joint venture with Chuo Senko - Japan's 17th largest agency.
