Move and win roundup: Week of April 4, 2022

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover April 4 through 8, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Dentsu Singapore promoted Pankaj Nayak to managing director of its media group, effective immediately. He reports to Prakash Kamdar, CEO of Dentsu Singapore and Indonesia, and Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of media for APAC. Mehrotra was promoted to that role in January 2021 but continued to cover the MD role Nayak will now assume, freeing her to focus on her regional responsibilities. Nayak joined Dentsu Singapore in 2021 as president of product strategy and delivery for the media group. The company credits him with leading the enhancement of product offerings in insights, commerce, experience and analytics. Prior to Dentsu, he was with OMD and its parent company Omnicom Media Group for over a decade.

Atome, a 'buy now, pay later' brand, selected BBDO Singapore as its creative agency following a pitch against three unnamed agencies. The agency said that as part of its AOR role, it is assigned to produce two "mega campaigns" in 2022, as well as two "sustenance" campaigns. Singapore-headquartered Atome provides services in 10 markets in Asia. It is part of Advance Intelligence Group.

WildBrain CPLG, an entertainment, sport and brand licensing agency, opened offices in Singapore, Taipei and Seoul and announced that the licensing team that is part of its existing Shanghai operations will be expanded and renamed WildBrain CPLG China. The new and existing operations will service the entire APAC region across approximately a dozen markets. Maarten Weck, EVP and managing director of WildBrain CPLG, will lead the APAC expansion. Jianbo Wei, managing director for China, will continue to oversee the expanded licensing team as well as WildBrain's content business in China. WildBrain-owned brands include Strawberry Shortcake, In the Night Garden, Inspector Gadget and Teletubbies.

Brand-experience agency Uniplan hired Olaf Pempel as executive director of global communication. He will be responsible for the agency's entire communications with teams in Germany and China, reporting to Rüdiger Maeßen, CEO Europe. Pempel previously worked as a freelance communication consultant at Uniplan and was managing director and practice group leader for marketing communication at Weber Shandwick in Munich from 2008 to 2020. Before that, he was business director at Pleon (now Ketchum) in Düsseldorf and head of corporate relations at Sony Electronics in Cologne.

Hong Kong-baased Esprit named Edwin Pak as chief technology officer; Maximilian Wang as vice president and head of marketing and communications; Calvin Wang as vice president and head of brand strategy, innovation and partnerships; Ivy Au as vice president and head of digital marketing; and Tiffany Chu as vice president and head of ecommerce and CRM. The members of this team, tasked with leading an "ambitious" ecommerce expansion, report to Larry Luk, chief digital and marketing officer.

Kunal Sinha has joined M&C Saatchi Indonesia as group chief strategy officer. Sinha has worked with agencies including JWT, Ogilvy and McCann and data consultancies such as Kantar and The Futures Company. He has also led projects involving trend forecasting on the Future of Technology, India’s top 50 growth markets for Tata Sons, the future of AI for Mastercard, beauty and grooming futures for Google, and identifying generational opportunities for Nissan in India, in addition to running Ogilvy Asia’s consumer and cultural trends programme and sustainability practice Ogilvy Earth. 

Brand consultancy Cowan has restructured its Southeast Asia businesses and appointed Zara Roberts as general manager, SEA. Roberts has been at Cowan for over 2 years, joining originally to lead the Singapore client servicing team where she was responsible for growth of existing clients and new business development. In her new role Roberts will manage both the Singapore and Vietnam businesses under Cowan SEA.

Iris Singapore has appointed Narayanan Rajgopalan (Naari) as head of data driven marketing and Rajnish Suneja as regional business director on the Samsung account. Rajgopalan joins Iris from Essence where he held the position of AVP, media planning, leading the performance marketing for Google Cloud and Google Store, while Suneja was co-founder and chief business development officer for Singapore-grown start-up Klaud9 (online B2B marketplace connecting professional freelance photographers, videographers with clients and agencies).

Research agency TRA, has appointed Irena Bakker as its new head of people and capability, and Stephen Churchman as head of design. Both roles have responsibilities across TRA Business Group, which includes TRA’s Australian and New Zealand offices, social media insights and listening tool Zavy, and SME brand health platform, Tracksuit. Bakker joins from WPP AUNZ where she was most recently head of HR and talent NZ. Churchman most recently held a role as head of creative at Les Mills US and prior to that holding design roles at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ and DDB NZ.

Out-of-home media company JCDecaux will remain as the exclusive street furniture provider for North Sydney Council after winning an expanded tender. The new contract, which includes street furniture, large format screens and community information panels including interactive touch screens, will see JCDecaux grow its network from four to 60 digital panels across Sydney’s second largest business district and throughout the Lower North Shore. As part of the expansion and upgrade, JCDecaux will deliver more than 35 new state-of-the-art digital street furniture screens and 19 new digital community information panels. 

Bohemia, part of the M&C Saatchi Group AUNZ has appointed Sophine Roza as head of content. In her new role, Roza will apply her inquisitive nature, passion for storytelling and deep interest in technology and strategy to create value for clients. She has over a decade of working with both global and local brands including, The Just Group, Starlight Foundation, Moët Hennessy, IBM, AWS and eBay.

Brand experience and innovation company Akcelo have been appointed by online broker Tiger Brokers as it launches the proprietary one-stop global investing platform, Tiger Trade, in Australia and New Zealand.

Mumbai-based agency Yellophant Digital has obtained the digital mandate for Oxemberg, a men’s fashion clothing brand from the house of Siyaram. The agency will be responsible for social media marketing and website planning as part of its digital duties. 

Dentsu International Hong Kong appointed Napoleon Biggs as chief consultant, effective immediately. He will offer consultancy for senior marketers in evolving their organisations in a digitally dominated world and drive integrated solutions for key clients by tapping the agency's creative, media and CXM service lines. Biggs has a diverse CV including with PR agencies, software companies and his own startups, and has also advised clients in a wide range of industries. In addition he built 'Web Wednesday' into a community of over 7,000 digital pioneers. He will report to Simone Tam, CEO of Dentsu International Hong Kong.

Virtue, the creative agency in Vice Media Group, appointed Zoe Chen as strategy director for APAC. She joins after six years at BBH in Singapore and London, where she worked across brands including Chupa Chups, Audi, Nike, Uber, Jollibee, United Overseas Bank and Sentosa. Based in Singapore, she will be strategy lead for Japanese skincare brand Clé de Peau Beauté, for which Virtue is the global social media agency of record, in addition to working on innovation projects for Diageo and Coca-Cola. She will also help lead Virtue’s soon to be launched internship programme.

BBH Singapore appointed Chris Chalk as chief strategy officer. He ws most recently global strategy director for Unilever at MullenLowe in London and also has experience with Cheil, Saatchi & Saatchi, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and TBWA Chiat Day. He is overseeing strategy across a number of accounts including Nike and Mulberry, as well as leading the agency’s planning talent. In addition, the agency has named 10-year veteran Lesley Chelvan as chief of staff. She will be responsible for resource management, internal communication, learning and development, and other cultural initiatives. BBH also recently promoted both Janson Choo and Khairul Mondzi to ECD roles. 

Talon Outdoor expanded its footprint into Asia-Pacific and Middle East, appointing Melanie Lindquist and Chadi Farhat to lead Singapore and Dubai, respectively. The company, led by CEO Barry Cupples, offers proprietary technology platforms and claims to provide smarter, data-driven and creative-led OOH planning and buying. Lindquist was previously with CrescoData and Ooh. She has led marketing, strategy, data and sales operations teams for the past two decades across radio, television, digital, ecommerce and OOH.

Zeno Group named Amanda Leong as managing director of its Malaysia office, reporting to Paul Mottram, regional president of Asia Pacific. She has been with the agency for eight years and has worked with clients including TNG Digital (Touch ‘n Go eWallet), Pizza Hut and Prudential Malaysia.

The Hoffman Agency has won the retained global agency brief with Trellix, the cybersecurity company launched as a new company in January 2022, emerging from the joining of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye in October 2021. Following a competitive review, Trellix has appointed The Hoffman Agency as its agency of record, supporting Trellix with public relations, content and social in the US and EMEA as well as expanding its existing relationship in APAC. See full story in PRWeek. 

APCO Worldwide has made a double leadership change in Asia, naming James Yi as regional senior director of market development, Southeast Asia, Korea and Australasia. JJ Lee now succeeds Yi as the new managing director for Southeast Asia. Having served as managing director of Southeast Asia and Korea for APCO since 2018, Yi will focus more on driving new business and presence in the region across sectors, including health care, technology and in the social impact space. Yi will continue to be part of the Southeast Asia leadership team and support Lee in the transition to her new role. Lee, a seasoned consultant with more than 15 years of experience in policy and strategic communications, has held a leadership role with WE Communications APAC prior to joining APCO, and also held senior lecturer posts in Korea.

Red Havas has launched a dedicated corporate affairs practice and appointed 20-year industry veteran Matt Thomas as executive director of corporate affairs. Thomas will lead Red Havas’ corporate and recently formed public affairs teams to service clients within Red Havas and across the Havas Village. The newly created role encompasses oversight of crisis and issues management, strategic communications, corporate media relations, internal communications, stakeholder engagement, government, and investor relations, thought leadership, reputation management and media training.

KFC Singapore appointed Arena Media, a subsidiary of Havas Media Group Singapore, as its social-media agency following a pitch called in January. The appointment is from April 1 for one year.

Creative PR agency Eleven has promoted Fiona Milliken to managing director and Amy Ashworth to general manager of its Sydney office to lead the agency and its people. Milliken has been with Eleven for the last nine years, spending the last five as general manager and was instrumental in leading the agency to be one of the most creative and awarded PR agencies regionally. Ashworth, steps into the GM role from her position as executive partner, having spent the last five years with Eleven, leading key accounts and memorable campaigns for the likes of Allianz, Mastercard, Kellogg’s and more.

Australian retail out-of-home business, Shopper, has appointed Jamie Hollebone to the newly created role of chief revenue officer and Karissa Fletcher to chief marketing officer, effective immediately. Fletcher has spearheaded Shopper’s rebrand while driving new data partnerships and market intelligence.

Global small business platform Xero appointed Chris O’Neill to the newly created role of chief growth officer, joining the executive leadership team. In his new role, O’Neill will be responsible for the strategic direction and operational performance of Xero’s applications and services division.

Sydney-based independent Agnes Media has been appointed by Australian payments platform Payo for digital marketing and performance media. Payo offers its customers the option to eat now, pay later across restaurants, cafes and bars by scanning a QR code and paying the bill in four fortnightly installments with zero interest, while offering exclusive, limited time offers at participating venues.