According to sources, the regional business will be led out of Beijing (the consumer unit) and Singapore (B2B).
Steve Bale, former head of Nokia’s global emerging markets business unit at Bates Beijing, takes over leadership of the consumer unit. He is joined by former Ogilvy regional business director Harish Vasudevan, who will head B2B in Singapore. Meanwhile, Simon Jorth - previously regional business director on Dell for Euro RSCG - will run operations for DaVinci Asia-Pacific out of Singapore.
All three are expected to report to BatesAsia CEO Digby Richards. However, both Richards and WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, who is playing a key role in the DaVinci initiative, declined to comment on the appointments.
The developments come after Ken Segall was confirmed as global ECD for DaVinci, based in the US.
It is thought that an ECD for DaVinci Asia-Pacific will be named within the next two weeks. By the time of its official 1 May start date, the unit is expected to have 150 staff in Asia-Pacific and will also sport a new name.
