Move and win roundup: Week of May 1, 2023

VaynerMedia has appointed Michelle Tsui as head of finance, Asia Pacific. Bringing over two decades of experience, Tsui has worked with prominent firms in the business, such as Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Saatchi & Saatchi, among others. At VaynerMedia, she will manage all financial functions of VaynerMedia's six business units in the region and work in tandem with managing director Tim Lindley. 

Outbrain, a leading recommendation platform for the open web, has appointed Amrita de la Peña as managing director of APAC. In this role, she will lead the company's expansion across the region, including Japan. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing, media and advertising, prior to joining Outbrain, she served as Sprout Social’s first general manager in the region. She previously spent six years building Twitter’s advertising business, including four years as head of global brands, JAPAC.

Global adtech company, Iion, has appointed Yun Yip as chief commercial officer. Yip will be overseeing the commercial strategy and operations while leading the company’s marketing function. 

Pranav Rastogi, the managing director (MD) for communications agency Redhill has departed from his role, PRWeek can confirm. Rastogi joined the Singapore-headquartered agency more than six years back and rose through the ranks in a short time. Read more details here. 

Pranay Singh and Andras Knodel have been appointed as Wavemaker's new APAC strategy partners. Singh will be the strategy lead for Mondelez across Wavemaker’s APAC remit that includes India, SE Asia and ANZ and Japan. Meanwhile, Andras Knodel relocates to Singapore, as part of Wavemaker's mobility program, from the Taiwan office where he led strategy for the agency. Knodel takes charge for AXA along with supporting the regional strategy team. Both join James Wong and Rylie Huang, who jumped from Colgate-Palmolive’s Asia-Pacific hub in Singapore last year to support the client’s business transformation agenda.

Google has appointed Kunal Guha as director, privacy and Chrome to lead privacy and Chrome in APAC. Guja brings nearly 20 years of industry experience. Prior to Google, Guha was APAC regional general manager of Uber for Business and before that he worked for over seven years at WPP and was EVP, chief strategy and growth officer of Essence. He has also worked for Saatchi & Saatchi in New York and Hong Kong before moving to Singapore.

Ogilvy Sydney has appointed new joint creative leadership as ECDs. Clark Edwards will relocate from the UK to join Ogilvy PR’s current creative lead Bridget Jung in June. Jung and Edwards will work across all Ogilvy network business units based out of Sydney. Prior to Ogilvy, Edwards was Creative Director at AMV BBDO London and won two Cannes Grand Prix last year for Sheba Hope Reef. With over 20 years of experience, he worked for The & Partnership, Leo Burnett and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. Jung, with over 25 years of creative experience, joined Ogilvy PR more than five years ago as ECD before being promoted to chief creative officer in 2019.  

Bastion Transform, the content strategy and digital transformation arm of Bastion in Australia, has appointed Jenni Ryall as the newly created role of group director, business development and strategy. With over 15 years of industry experience in tech, news media and content strategy, Ryall was at Meta in strategic partnerships for news before joining Bastion Transform. Prior to this role, Jenni had an extensive career in news and digital media in Australia and the US. In her new role, Jenni’s focus will be on building out the media, tech, and content businesses for Bastion Transform. 

Think HQ has appointed Lisa Gumbleton as head of creative strategy, Sam McCarron as head of art, and Nadia Ladson as account director. The trio joined Think HQ from creative agency Marmalade after it closed  doors at the end of 2022. Gumbleton was partner and director of client service and planning for 16 years before joining Think HQ, McCarron was a senior creative for five years at Marmalade. Ladson worked for four years as an account director at Marmalade.

Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, has named Rupali Jain as chief product officer. Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, has named Rupali Jain as chief product officer. Jain will lend her deep technical expertise to further empower fast, confident innovation in marketing.  Prior to Optimizely, Jain brought two decades of industry experience and held product leadership roles at a number of SaaS software companies, including PowerBI at Microsoft and Qualtrics. Optimizely has over 700 partners and 21 global offices, including Singapore and Vietnam in Asia-Pacific.