Move and win roundup: Week of January 9, 2023

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover January 9 through January 13, 2023.   Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Hitachi Vantara, the infrastructure, data management and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. has appointed Monica Kumar as chief marketing officer. effective immediately. Kumar was most recently the senior VP of global marketing and cloud at Nutanix, but also spent more than 20 years at Oracle, serving in a wide variety of roles, most notably as the CMO of the multi-billion-dollar Oracle Database business. Kumar reports directly to CEO Gajen Kandiah.

Wunderman Thompson India appoints Rajeshwari Rao as senior vice president and executive creative director effective 9th January 2023. Based out of Mumbai, Rao will be the creative head on the agency’s Unilever’s business in addition to manning several other clients.  

Global marketing firm ADM Group has made key leadership changes:

• Justin Barton, current global CEO is now taking the role of executive chairman. 
• New York-based Ed Colflesh is now the new group CEO. He has been CEO of the Americas and has overseen the growth of the region to become the largest part of the ADM business. Colflesh has worked in senior roles in the marketing and advertising services sector for over 15 years. 
• Noah Lapine is the new CEO, Americas. He joined the business earlier this year when ADM Group acquired consumer engagement agency Lapine, where he was CEO.

TSL Media Group has added to its leadership team with the appointment of Jonathan Seto as the new chief growth officer and Nicolle Sing as group director. Seto comes with nearly 20 years of integrated marketing experience in various independent and network agencies. Prior to joining TSL Media Group, he was the MD at B2B agency MOI Global. Meanwhile Sing comes on board from global social media influencer agency Goat, as the business director she was responsible for expanding the agency’s presence across 13 markets in Asia. Her experience spans more than a decade across the region, with brands such as HSBC, Porsche, WarnerMedia and Google. 

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has appointed VMLY&R as its full-service creative agency following an extensive tender process. The partnership leverages the full breadth of VMLY&R’s offerings, including brand, creative, digital experience, and content. QUT previously worked with BCM as its agency partner for 23 years but decided to re-tender its creative account in September last year. According to local media reports, more than 20 agencies including CHEP, Publicis, and Clemenger Group supposedly expressed their interest in the account.

Ogury has promoted Geoffroy Martin to the position of chief executive officer. Former Ogury CEO Thomas Pasquet, who co-founded the company and served in the role for eight years, will transition to chairman of the board. Martin has over 25-years of experience in tech companies. Prior to joining Ogury, he was general manager and executive vice president of growth portfolio at Criteo, where he created and grew the retail media division. Get more details here. 

TheSmartLocal (TSL) Media Group has hired Jonathan Seto as its chief growth officer while Nicolle Sing has been appointed group director. Seto comes with nearly 20 years of integrated marketing experience in various independent and network agencies. Previously he was the managing director at multispecialist B2B agency MOI Global. Sing joins from global social media influencer agency Goat, where she expanded the agency’s presence across 13 markets in Asia as its business director.  On the senior management front, TSL Media Group also recently appointed Thomas Teo, formerly of Deloitte Consulting and Changi Travel Services as its chief of staff and head of CEO office; Li Sihui, previously from The Ascott joined as its head of brand comms.

Kantar has named Cheong Tai Leung as chief executive officer of its Insights Asia-Pacific business. Reporting to Chris Jansen, Kantar's CEO, Leung will lead Kantar's regional team in growing relationships with brands and redefine their growth strategies. Cheong takes over the leadership role from Wayne Levings, who will now focus exclusively on his role as Kantar's chief client officer.   

Redhill has formed a strategic partnership with Vivid Creations, a Japan-focussed marketing agency. Through this collaboration, Redhill will strengthen its existing market presence and capabilities in Japan while Vivid Creations will gain access to Redhill's knowledge and expertise across its network for its clients. 

Angga Peeta Prasetyo has joined Fonterra as regional customer relationship manager for Southeast Asia. He will be reporting to Kartika Guerrero, regional digital and media director for SEA. In his role, Prasetyo will drive the CRM and data strategy planning and execution across the region. In addition, he will work on bringing more collaboration and integration and enhance connectivity amongst local, regional and global stakeholders. Prior to joining Fonterra, he was the CRM marketing manager at Danone Indonesia. 

Wavemaker Malaysia has won the Danone pitch for its Specialized Nutrition business, including its Dugro, Mamil, AptaGro and Milnutri brands. The win follow's the agency's scoop of Danone’s global media account last year after a competitive review. Danone marketing director for Malaysia and Singapore, Yee Pek Kuan, cited Wavemaker's understanding of their business, strategic approach and robust media pricing as reasons behind the win. 

McCann Worldgroup Japan has announced that Kazz Ishihara, executive creative director (ECD) of MRM Japan will assume the position of group ECD, McCann Worldgroup Japan, effective immediately. In this newly-created role Kazz will oversee the creative teams of both McCann and Craft, in addition to MRM, to bring more collaboration and integration across McCann Worldgroup and enhance connectivity with regional and global creative leaders. Kazz joined MRM in Japan in 2019 and brings over 20 years’ experience as a creative, winning numerous prestigious industry awards, including the Cyber Cannes Lion Gold award and Spikes.

Asia-based hotel and hospitality company Ascott has appointed Serena Lim as its chief growth officer. Lim will lead Ascott’s global business development team, responsible for management and franchise contracts among portfolio brands such as Ascott, Citadines, Somerset, lyf and Oakwood globally, excluding China. Lim most recently was vice president for development in Southeast Asia and Korea at the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), but spent early parts of her career with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, where she led the company’s expansion across Southeast Asia.

Australian-owned online trading services brand Go Markets, has named Chinese tennis star Shuai Zhang as its newest global brand ambassador. Zhang is China’s highest ranked tennis professional, Olympian (2016), Asian Games multi-medallist and two-time Grand Slam Champion. She will endorse Go Markets throughout 2023 at the highest profile tennis competitions globally, including Grand Slams, WTA 1000s, WTA 500s, WTA 250s and the Asian Games. The partnership was brokered by global sports marketing company Project11, first forged at the Wimbledon Championships in 2022.

Video streaming platform Dailymotion has appointed Simon Barnett as VP sales for APAC, bringing over two decades of leadership experience across business development and sales in startups and large enterprises such as Channel Factory, DAZN, News Corp, Yahoo and Catcha Digital Asia. Reporting to Bichoï Bastha, chief revenue and business officer, Barnett will be tasked with building out business and commercial strategy in APAC, including company positioning as its ramps up personnel growth.

Brand and customer experience agency VMLY&R has appointed Rhys Taylor as its new managing director for Singapore. In his new role, Taylor will oversee sales, account management and revenue generation for VMLY&R’s Singapore operation. He will report to Hari Ramanathan, CEO, VMLY&R South, Southeast Asia and Japan. Taylor brings with him more than 14 years of industry experience working in senior leadership roles, most recently as managing director, Asia-Pacific for Dentsu International, where he was responsible for CXM, B2B strategy and creative.

Dentsu India has appointed Sapna Arora as the company’s chief client officer (CCO). In this role, Arora will continue to enhance integrated solutions for existing and prospective clients and drive growth for the network. She will report to Rob Gilby, CEO APAC, and work closely with the leadership as well as teams across creative, media and CX. Arora brings 22 years of global growth and general management experience, coupled with expertise in developing consumer tech businesses and digital products. She has worked with several Fortune 500 companies such as Naspers, Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, P&G, and has led many start-up stages of businesses in multiple geographic locations. Prior to this, Arora was the CMO, PRO, brand head – Emerging Markets of OLX India.

Manulife has hired Anne-Maree Tassell as its new chief operations officer, Asia, to help drive the company’s growth strategy and digital transformation in the region. Tassell will report to both Damien Green, president and CEO, Manulife Asia, and Rahul Joshi, global chief operations officer. Tassell joins the insurance company from Citi, where she held leadership roles across Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. Most recently, she was the head of operations and technology for Citi’s EMEA markets, responsible for overseeing and managing the bank’s operations and technology infrastructure across multiple products, shared services and infrastructure support.

JCDecaux Transport, Hong Kong and Macau has elevated Ray Lee to the role of general manager, overseeing the business of Hong Kong MTR and Airport Express advertising. Lee comes with a robust experience of 22 years in outdoor and online media advertising. In the new role, Lee will continue to report to managing director Shirley Chan and lead the in-house sales teams to deliver on better customer experience and drive positive business outcomes for the company and clients.