Move and win roundup: Week of March 23, 2020

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover March 23 through 27, 2020.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Dentsu Aegis Network appointed Yusuke Kasahara as CEO of Solutions for APAC, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, Kasahara will report to Masaya Nakamura, CEO of Global Solutions and Ashish Bhasin, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network APAC, while maintaining his role as head of corporate strategy for APAC. He also joins the APAC executive team. Solutions is a specialised team tha works across DAN's operating model to identify and solve client challenges, and is core to DAN's long-term vision and competitiveness in the marketplace, the company said. The APAC hub was set up in early 2019 by Joanna Catalano, who has since left the business. Kasahara has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Singapore in both Dentsu Inc and Dentsu Aegis.

WE Communications has appointed Marcus Loh as regional senior client director in its APAC technology practice. Loh was previously APAC director of comms at Tableau Software, and prior to that, VP of marketing and corporate comms at PSB Academy. In his new role, he will report to regional technology lead Sara Pereira. 

Lion & Lion Digital Group hired Hans Lee as head of art and Gary John as creative group head in Malaysia. Lee has over 20 years of experience including with JWT, BBDO, McCann, Rapp Collins, Publicis, M&C Saatchi, MullenLowe, VMLY&R, Ensemble, and Alpha245. John has had stints with Saatchi & Saatchi KL, Ogilvy & Mather KL, Leo Burnett KL and Geometry Global.

Dentsu Aegis Network China appointed Ravin Chan as VP for data and technology, reporting into Terrence Yung, COO. Chan joins from Alibaba where he was senior product expert / senior big data solution architect, responsible for corporate digital transformation, data product portfolio development and commercialization strategy. In the newly created role at DAN, Chan will lead the development of the data and product business model and the Dentsu programmatic offering across the media group. Prior to Alibaba, Chan worked at GroupM.

Experience design agency Eight Inc appointed Richard Bradley as principal of communications, to be based in the Singapore studio. Bradley will work with other regional leaders to integrate the firm across APAC. He brings over 25 years of experience in creative, strategy and design executions spanning design, advertising, brand experience and digital marketing fields. He will report to executive director Andrew Au.

Former Carat Australia chairman Haydon Bray announced the Australia launch of Audience Precision, a new media strategy consultancy and technology business, which claims to unlock the true value of media in driving business outcomes while eliminating guesswork from key marketing investment decisions. The company has a foundation client in Warner Music and already has offices in New York and London, with further global expansion to come. Bray is global CEO.

In India, Mirum appointed Preetam Thingalaya as director of media. He will head the media planning and buying division and play a key role in growing the business and providing strategic direction, especially focusing on programmatic and performance marketing. He has more than two decades of experience with Mindshare, PHD and Hungama, and his last role was with OTT platform Zee5 as the digital lead for SVOD and music verticals. He will be based in Mumbai and will report to CEO Sanjay Mehta.

Australian indepedent The Hallway appointed Erin Kelly as client partner working across accounts including Google and appointed Libby Hams to the newly created role head of project management. Kelly has 15 years of experience across startups and agencies and was most recently the marketing lead for sustainability startup Containers for Change, backed by Lion and Coca-Cola Amatil. Prior to this she worked at agencies including TBWA and Host. Hams has earlier experience with Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, M&C Saatchi, DDB and BMF. 

Impact, a provider of automation solutions, promoted Michael Head to the newly created role of chief partnerships officer. The firm also appointed Rob Perdue, former COO and board member of The Trade Desk, to its board of directors. These appointments follow Impact’s March 2019 establishment of the Partnership Automation category, at which time the company also announced a $75 million round of funding to support the growth of its Partnership Cloud platform. 

Engage Southeast Asia, a reputation management and digital communications firm in Malyasia, appointed Rajan Moses as country manager. He previously worked with Malaysian brands and government-linked companies including Khazanah, Iskandar Investment, Legoland and Sunway. Moses will lead the firm’s business development, focused on strengthening its crisis communications and reputation management counsel for CEOs and brands.

Adjust, a B2B SaaS company, appointed Ville Mikkola as as head of Coalition Against Ad Fraud (CAAF), an industry-wide alliance founded by Adjust to tackle ad fraud. Prior to Adjust, he worked with adtech firm Glispa and mobile advertising network YeahMobi. Most recently, Mikkola co-founded a casual gaming company, TreasureHunt, which worked with NBCUniversal and was recently acquired by Huuuge Games.

Wavemaker Philippines hired Oyie Pingol as its new chief integration officer. Pingol was formerly CEO of Carat Philippines and has worked with a number of global media networks including Vizeum, Starcom and Minsahre. 

Brand experience agency Uniplan has promoted Geraldine Chew, current managing director of the Greater Bay Area, to CEO, Greater China. Chew has led strategy for brands such as Volvo, Haier, Adidas, Tencent, Huawei and Tourism Australia on services development, focused on furthering client engagement and has overseen the delivery of large-scale projects both in Greater China and abroad. She has also become a member of the newly-established Uniplan Global Board which oversees the direction of the Uniplan Group in Greater China.

Reuter Communications has appointed Lily Lu as digital director, Ian Lin as creative director, and Sharon Liang as director, people and culture, all of whom will be based in the agency’s Shanghai headquarters. Lu has more than 15 years’ experience at Ogilvy, TBWA, Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi while Liang joins from IPG where she was a senior manager of human resources and talent. Lin brings more than eight years of experience to the table and will lead a creative team of 15 staff at Reuter.

Entropia Group appointed Syahar Khalid as partner for integrated media, reporting to Entropia founder Prashant Kumar. Khalid has two decades of experience, most recently as managing director of The Studio by CtrlShift.

Digital recruitment agency Salt is welcoming new Australia country director Andrea McHutchon, who has over 20 years of recruitment experience in various sectors including the marketing industry.

Mailman founder and CEO Andrew Collins has relocated to Singapore to continue to lead the group, including the China, London, and APAC businesses. Collins will focus primarily on partnerships, strategy, and innovation within the group, which serves the global sports industry across digital strategy, transformation, social media, content production, and ecommerce.

Weber Shandwick APAC and EMEA chair Tim Sutton has stepped down after 16 years at the agency. After a career break, he is said to want to explore new personal and professional interests. Sutton joined in 2004 as chairman of EMEA and in 2007, he moved to lead the APAC region, based in Hong Kong, and stayed there for eight years, returning to London in 2015. Since then, Sutton has also run the APAC and EMEA regions of CMG, Interpublic Group’s portfolio of integrated marketing services businesses.

Mirum India has been appointed as a marketing automation partner by Shwapno, a grocery chain in Bangladesh, to implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud and integrate the platform with third party systems.

Meredith Carson is Golden Equator Consulting's new Managing Partner. Carson will be responsible for the growth of the firm's digitally-focused consulting business. She previously spent 12 years in the United Arab Emirates advising global brands across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Europe and North America. 

Media consultancy K7 Media hired Trang Nguyen as Asia Pacific Researcher. She joins the business full time following the completion of a 12-month internship alongside studying for a master’s degree from Manchester University. Prior to moving to the UK, Nguyen spent almost 10 years living in Ho Chi Minh City.