Move and win roundup: Week of July 12, 2021

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover July 12 through 16, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

A month after IPG sold 303 Mullenlowe to New Zealand-based Attivo Group, the agency's CEO Nick Cleaver is departing after a 15-year stint. Before he joined 303 MullenLowe, and grew the business significantly, he was CEO of DDB Australia for 16 years, growing from account director to the corner office. 

PRecious Communications was appointed as public relations agency for Mdada.live, a livestream commerce company in Singapore. Founded in September by celebrity hairstylist Addy Lee, Pornsak and Michelle Chia, Mdada.live has a unique monthly reach of more than 100,000 viewers and provides content about beauty, hair and wellness products every night.

Starcom-affiliated Brainchild Communications Pakistan (BCP) hired Haris Paracha as an associate director reporting to Starcom director Shahyan Qureshi on the P&G account; Asim Malik as business lead digital for the Coke account, reporting to Coke business lead Mujtaba Kamal; Farrukh Rao as business lead planning on the Mondelez account, reporting to associate director Saadi Ghouse; Yusra Younis as media planner on the Mondelez account, reporting to assistant manager media planning Zehra Shahid; and Osama Mohiuddin as senior media planner for the Starcom corporate south team, reporting to senior manager of media planning Sumbul Ateeq.

Precision has announced three new hires just one week after launch. M&C Saatchi’s new marketing sciences practice has recruited Steve Wright as director of data & technology, Olivia Nadile as research manager and Tahl Finkenberg as data & analytics manager. Having worked with clients across Europe and Australia, Wright brings over 16 years of experience to Precision. Nadile has worked with Australian brands including ING, Sanitarium, ANZ, Jetstar, Cochlear and IAG and Finkenberg spent the most recent phase of his career specialising in market mix modelling and other data driven projects for Dentsu and CHE Proximity.

AnyMind Group has today announced three additions to the company’s leadership team: Takehiko Mizutani is hired as managing director of human resources, Purwa Jain as managing director of product growth, and Koki Shibata as managing director of engineering. Mizutani joins with over two decades of experience in human resources and previously ran his own consultancy. Jain joins from Collab Asia, where she was head of advertising for Asia, and Shibata joined AnyMind Group in 2019 as a full-stack engineer and was promoted to head of engineering in January 2021.

Kicker Communications has announced the appointment of Sweta Sewa and promotion of Rochelle Cervantes. In her role as media adviser, Sewa brings over a decade of communications and corporate reputation management experience to Kicker. Sewa will work alongside Beroze Dubash, who joined the team a few months ago as media adviser at Kicker Sydney. Cervantes takes on the role of media adviser following her recent return from maternity leave. With seven years of experience in Australia, the Middle East and Asia, Rochelle has been based at Kicker’s Adelaide office as a consultant since 2019. 

Zeno Group has appointed Rosemary Merz as head of corporate for the APAC region. She will also be a member of Zeno’s global corporate practice. Reporting to Zeno APAC president Paul Mottram, Merz will continue to be based in Hong Kong. Merz was most recently managing director at Archetype.

Dentsu Malaysia has won Pizza Hut's media buying and planning services effective July 2021. Dentsu's mandate is to create media experiences through data-driven marketing and future-proof Pizza Hut for a cookie-less ecosystem.

One Esports, a subsidiary of Group One Holdings has entered into partnerships with video game software developer and distributor Activision Blizzard, as well as online food and grocery delivery platform Foodpanda Thailand.

PR firm Ruder Finn Asia has been appointed by Bumble, the dating and social networking app, as its agency of record to manage PR in Singapore.

Xandr has renewed its global contract with Microsoft. This pact will see Microsoft extend its use of Xandr’s sell-side platform, Xandr Monetize, and its Global Supply Evangelism relationship with Xandr. Concurrently, Microsoft is increasing its marketing spend that runs through Xandr’s Invest DSP and extending the Microsoft Audience Network demand platform to bid in the Xandr Marketplace.

Dentsu has promoted Sue Squillace to chief executive officer, Dentsu Media ANZ, and Gayle While as chief digital officer within the media portfolio. This change forms part of ongoing recast of Dentsu ANZ. In her expanded remit, Squillace will continue to lead Carat whilst driving and growing Dentsu’s media portfolio across ANZ, which includes DentsuX, iProspect and SMG. Meanwhile, prior to joining Dentsu ANZ, While was chief client officer with Hugo & Cat, London, focussing on digital transformation strategies for clients such as GSK, S&P Global and Stanley Black & Decker. Gayle will commence her new appointment on the 2nd August.

Publicis Groupe Hong Kong has appointed Katheryn Lui as chief strategy officer effective 19th of July 2021. She will lead the planning function of Publicis Groupe Hong Kong and be responsible for driving business transformation, consulting, and integrated solutions. She will report to Tom Kao, CEO of Publicis Groupe Hong Kong. Before joining Publicis, she was the group head of Strategy,  Dentsu international Hong Kong and led the consulting practice at Isobar Hong Kong. Lui was named on Campaign Asia-Pacific's Women to Watch Greater China 2021.

Havas Media Group Australia has appointed Michaela Aguilar to the role of head of Customer Experience and Analytics. Aguilar's expanded role includes overseeing an advanced data analytics capabilities for a team of 14, in addition to continuing her current complementary existing remit of managing marketing automation, ecommerce, personalisation and conversion rate optimisation. She was most recently head of Solutions for Havas.

Kantar, has appointed Annie Ho as to chief financial officer, Insights Division, Asia-Pacific. Ho will replace Stephen Gardner who is retiring after almost 25 years with Kantar and the WPP Group. She joins Kantar’s regional senior leadership team from her tenure as CFO and vice president, Finance and Business Control, Asia-Pacific at the Volvo Group in Singapore.

Xaxis, GroupM’s outcome media specialist, has appointed Leanne Bowles as its general manager in Japan. Bowles will report to Arshan Saha, Xaxis CEO, Asia-Pacific and Michael Beecroft, GroupM CEO, Northeast Asia. Bowles brings ten years of experience within the GroupM network, including over four years with Xaxis Asia Pacific before moving to Mindshare China where she held the position of Partner, Investment Strategy for over three years.

Singapore Press Holdings has renewed its appointment of Happy Marketer to manage its data transformation journey. As part of the appointment, Happy Marketer will provide support capabilities in the enterprise analytics tool Google Analytics 360.  

CupShup, a full-service agency, has secured the digital mandate for Treebo Hotels.
As part of their mandate, Cupshup will work on social media management, content marketing, and consulting Treebo on media planning.

Olly Taylor has been appointed Havas Creative Group Australia chief strategy officer, with his remit spanning Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The role will see Taylor lead strategy for Host/Havas, Red Havas, One Green Bean, Havas Commerce and a new research and insights capability, Havas Labs. He will also take responsibility for the development of IP and processes for world-class strategy across paid, earned and owned media, on and offline. Taylor moves into the role from his position as CSO at Host/Havas. 

Group creative director Pia Chaudhuri has been promoted to the role of executive creative director at BMF. Earlier this year, she secured the pitch to retain the Department of Social Services for the Government’s long-term behaviour change campaign to tackle domestic violence. She also led Phase III of “Stop It At The Start”, and the COVID-19 response campaign that reminded Australians in lockdown: “Help Is Here.”

Zolo, a co-living spaces provider in India has appointed Rishi Sharma as chief marketing officer. Sharma comes with over 20 years of marketing experience. In his new role he will be responsible for strengthening the brands external and internal brand communication along with developing an overarching brand strategy for new vertical launches. Prior to Zolo, Sharma worked with with Aditya Birla Group, Liva and Kara. His previous stints include Samsung India Electronics and advertising agencies like McCann, Publicis, Euro RSCG (HAVAS) as a planner.

Z2C in Pakistan has appointed Kaleem Ahmed as the group head of talent & culture, based in Karachi. Reporting to Z2C's group chief financial officer Mahmood Merchant, Ahmed will head people operations and work on expanding the employee base as the firm scales up following significant investments made around sports marketing. Ahmed has nearly 15 years of experience across six major banks in Pakistan. 

Robotics company SoftBank Robotics Singapore has appointed Zeno Group as its communications agency in Australia. Zeno’s remit will focus on promoting business developments in Australia and Asia-Pacific to key Australian audiences.

FCB Ulka has revealed its newly elevated leadership team, one week after FCB Group India reorganised its creative agencies into three full-service brands—FCB Ulka, FCB Interface, and a new shop called FCB India. FCB Ulka, the flagship agency of the group, has now appointed Kulvinder Ahluwalia, who formerly led account management, as CEO. He will be joined by Saad Khan as chief strategy officer and Keigan Pinto as chief creative officer, elevated from their prior roles leading strategic planning and creative at FCB Ulka’s Mumbai office.

Dentsu International has appointed Doug Ray as global chief product officer of media. In this new role, Ray will be responsible for the vision and delivery of the media product roadmap for the Dentsu scaled service offering and its media agencies: Carat, iProspect and Dentsu X. He will also continue in his current role as chief product officer, Dentsu Americas. Ray will remain based in the US and will now sit on the global media leadership team and dual report to Peter Huijboom, global CEO of media and Jeff Greenspoon, president of solutions, Americas.

Salesforce has expanded into Thailand with the opening of a dedicated office at Sukhumvit Road’s T-One building in Thonglor. The CRM giant will service existing customers including Roojai.com, Anantara Vacation Club, and Salesforce Ventures portfolio company Beryl8 from the new office. It plans to grow its Thai team by hiring over 10 more employees, based in Thailand, to further support its local customers.

Group creative director Pia Chaudhuri has been promoted to the role of executive creative director at BMF. Earlier this year, she secured the pitch to retain the Department of Social Services for the Government’s long-term behaviour change campaign to tackle domestic violence. She also led Phase III of “Stop It At The Start”, and the COVID-19 response campaign that reminded Australians in lockdown: “Help Is Here.”