Move and win roundup: Week of May 22, 2023

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover May 22 through May 26, 2023.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

After a multi-round pitch, McCann Shanghai has won the Centrum China business, being appointed as the vitamin brand’s lead creative agency for 2023 and 2024. McCann’s consumer and healthcare insights were key to the agency winning the pitch. To celebrate their 30th anniversary in China, Centrum plans to upgrade their brand image, as well as establish and strengthen its reputation as a daily health empowerment brand for Chinese consumers. Known for multivitamins, Centrum is also building a portfolio of multicategory products and will also gradually introduce a variety of select cross-border e-commerce products. The relevant strategic and creative approach for this will also be handled by McCann Shanghai.

Aditya Birla Capital (ABC) has appointed Dentsu Creative India as its lead brand communications agency. The agency will manage the creative services for ABC - the corporate brand, and five of its subsidiaries. This includes developing and implementing advertising campaigns across various mediums to enhance the brand's communication and messaging. The account will be serviced from the agency's Mumbai office.

Supply side platform Lemma has brought in Ryan Pestano as chief product officer. An accomplished product leader with expertise in digital media, product strategy and business development, Pestano  will oversee Lemma's complete portfolio of products and platforms and will work to advance emerging media formats. He joins Lemma following a 7-year tenure with Iponweb (acquired by Criteo) where he most recently served as VP of APAC.

Iain Twine has joined global communications advisory firm FGS Global as partner in Singapore. Twine will lead the Singapore office, responsible for accelerating growth in Southeast Asia, facilitating cross-border capabilities and inward investment into the region from the Middle East, China and Europe. He has worked across Southeast Asia and APAC for the past decade and spent 14 years at Edelman where he was vice chairman of APACMEA, ran Edelman’s Southeast Asia and Australia businesses, and set up three offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. 

Ogilvy Singapore has appointed Q Akashah as managing director for Singapore and Malaysia with immediate effect. She retains her portfolio as executive director for Islamic Marketing, Southeast Asia. With more than 15 years of strategic communications experience, she joined Ogilvy PR in 2008. Akashah will oversee and manage the PR offices across both markets, pursuing innovations in areas such as AI, influencer engagement, creative and content creation, and employee engagement, among others. She will continue to report to Emily Poon, president, Ogilvy PR, Asia Pacific as well as Kunal Jeswani, group CEO, Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia.

Deloitte Digital has appointed Leon Doyle to head its Australian operations and succeed the departure of Esan Tabrizi, announced earlier this week. Doyle was the chief experience officer of the main Deloitte Australia business. He started his career at Deloitte at Eclipse as a UX consultant, which later became part of the consultancy, and he was promoted to director at Deloitte Digital in 2011 and partner in 2013, leading experience design practice. Then, he moved to Deloitte Australia as customer strategy and experience design practice leader in 2019 before moving up to chief experience officer in 2021.

Digital advertising solutions platform, Azerion has appointed Caitlin Huskins as commercial director for the Japan and APAC region. Before joining Azerion, Huskins was formerly group marketplace director, digital for EssenceMediaCom Australia, digital integration director at Havas Digital, and investment director at Mindshare Australia, where she was digital account lead for the University of Melbourne, and also worked on Fuels Australia, SodaStream Australia, Castrol, Treasury Wine Estates and so on. 

TotallyAwesome has appointed Raja Kanniappan as the chief financial officer. With 35 years of agency experience across Australia, Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa, Kanniappan brings a wealth of experience on all aspects of financial and operational management and leadership in the capacity.

Goodyear Malaysia, the leading tyre brand manufacturer, has selected SLPR Worldwide, public relations and digital communications agency, to spearhead its PR duties in Malaysia, effective immediately. The agency is tasked to elevate Goodyear's reputation as the premium tyre brand in Malaysia and beyond. Goodyear Malaysia's tyre innovation will be communicated through various media channels, including digital and traditional platforms. 

Vistar Media, global provider of programmatic technology for DOOH, has announced a string of new hires across its Australia and Singapore offices 

• Teegan Gardner joins as APAC marketing manager based in Sydney. 
• Nydia Goh joins as account director in Singapore 
• Kheng Hian Ong also joins the Singapore team as manager

Wunderman Thompson has appointed Vaishali Sarkar as president of Wunderman Thompson Canada. Sarkar moves to Canada with her family from Indonesia, where she has served as CEO of Wunderman Thompson Indonesia for the past three years. Sarkar joined Wunderman Thompson Indonesia in 2020 and led the company through the JWT, Wunderman and Mirum merger. Over the past three years, she has consolidated the agency business with a strong client portfolio, plus the building and training of the best talent. 

Cheil India has appointed Amit Nandwani as national creative director. In his new role, Amit will lead the creative output on the new businesses of the agency and report to Vikash Chemjong, CCO, Cheil India and closely work with Neeraj Bassi, chief growth officer of Cheil India. Nandwani moved from Leo Burnett to Cheil. Please read more about the story. 

Imagination has appointed Justine Carr as its new head of growth in Australia. Before Imagination, she was APAC business director for George P Johnson. In her new role, Carr will be responsible for Imagination’s wider strategic goal of building its brand reputation and driving business growth by delivering world-class immersive and integrated experiences. Carr brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Imagination, including strategy, brand, creative, digital tech, experiential, comms, social media and PR. She has worked across a diverse range of industries with clients including Visa, Google, Johnson & Johnson and L’Oréal.

Carbon, an independent APAC creative content agency, has appointed Lincoln Damen as regional executive creative director. In this role, Damen will oversee Carbon's entire creative capability. Before Carbon, Damen served regional and global markets with agencies such as TBWA (Shanghai) and Imagination (Hong Kong). He will lead a new team, including:

• Clara Ho, previously of Grey Hong Kong, as HK group creative director
• Stratos Efstahiou as HK creative director who recently joined from Ogilvy Hong Kong
• Ahmad Sale as creative director, who joins the Singapore office from TBWA.

Havas Ortega has appointed Maria Lourdes Benito-Escalona, as the Havas Village HR director the Philippines. Benito-Escalona will oversee all aspects of human resources for the organisation and work closely with senior leadership to provide insights and recommendations on workforce planning, organisational design, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

PAD Group has launched branded content venture, Hotcult. Headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Hyderabad and Bangalore, Hotcult will cater to a diverse country, like India, enabling brands to not just relate but resonate with their target audiences and drive engagement, loyalty, and business growth. 

The London International Awards has announced its jury presidents and jurors for the 2023 Ambient & Activation; Print; Poster and Billboard, and Branded Content & Entertainment competitions. Guan Hin Tay, creative chairman of BBDO Singapore will lead the Ambient & Activation; Print; Poster and Billboard Jury as president. Representing Asia on these two juries are:

• Yehoon Lee, VP/ECD, Cheil Worldwide, Seoul - Ambient & Activation | Print | Poster | Billboard 
• Lulu Lu, CCO, Wunderman Thompson, Taipei - Branded Content & Entertainment 
• Thamakorn Ruchakityanon, CD, Sour, Bangkok - Branded Content & Entertainment 

Digital telco Circles.Life has appointed Team Lewis as its agency partner for public relations and influencer engagement following a competitive pitch for the account last December. With effect from 1 April 2023, Team Lewis has been supporting Circles.Life in conceptualising, developing, and implementing PR strategies and activities in Singapore and will also be responsible for the creation of mainstream, online and social media brand coverage.

Ogilvy Network ANZ announces the launch of TK.Lab, a new service that will develop organic, paid and creator led TikTok strategies for local and global brands operating in the region. Capabilities include strategy, creative, sound, media, commerce, influence, and intelligence provided by a team of specialists from across the Ogilvy Network that include Daniel Young, managing director of consumer PR and influence; Nicolas Mendel, head of digital performance; Louise Jones, TK.Lab lead & director of social; Cody Desmond, culture editor.

TriOn & Co, a communications consultancy based in Singapore, has joined Mirovia, a global network of PR agencies providing specialist communications, marketing and business development advice across borders to legal sector clients. Mirovia has also welcomed New Delhi-based Commwiser to further expand its network services to the Indian legal market. Mirovia partner agencies collaborate on cross-border mandates by pooling their respective strengths to legal sector clients’ advantage internationally. TriOn and Commwiser are the first Asia-based members to join the network.

Independent Sydney-based creative agency It’s Friday has been appointed as the creative agency of record for global human resources software company Elmo. Founded in 2002, Elmo Software is a cloud-based solution for organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to manage their people, process and pay.

After an impressive 30 years in advertising in India, Tarun Rai, executive director of strategic initiatives at Wunderman Thompson APAC is retiring. Rai joined the company as a young account executive in 1988 and quickly rose to step into managing partner position at JWT in 2002. After a stint in Worldwide Media in India, Rai returned to JWT in 2015 as group CEO of South Asia. After leading the merger between Wunderman and JWT, he was appointed chairman and group CEO for South Asia in 2019. In addition, he stepped into the role of executive director of strategic initiatives across the region at the beginning of last year.

Electriclime° has added filmmaker Dania Bdeir to director roster. The Lebanese writer and director will be represented exclusively in Asia and Australia and on a freelance basis in the MENA region. Bdeir’s film Kaleidoscope was screened internationally and won several awards, including the GoldHeren Palm at the 2014 Mexico International Film Festival. Her film, In White, received a grant from the Spike Lee Production Fund and won the international competition at the Rio de Janeiro International short film festival. Her latest project, Warsha, was shortlisted at the 95th Oscars in the Live Action Short Film category.

CNN Worldwide has appointed Phil Nelson to lead the network’s international business operations and its work with commercial partners outside of the United States. As executive vice president of CNN International Commercial (CNNIC), Nelson is responsible for all international advertising sales, content sales, licensing and commercial distribution revenue, and related client solutions functions, including Create brand studio and digital and data operations. In this role, Nelson also works with partners across Warner Bros. Nelson has been CNNIC’s chief operating officer since 2019, leading operational and international growth initiatives while managing advertising sales support functions. Prior to CNN, Nelson was managing director of Turner North Asia and South East Asia Pacific.

Deloitte Digital Australia's head Esan Tabrizi is departing from his role at the consulting. After winding up by the end of May, Tabrizi will relocate to Dubai to be closer to family. He joined Deloitte Digital Australia as a manager in 2010 and got elevated to partner position in 2014. Subsequent promotions later, Tabrizi was heading Deloitte Digital Australia in 2021. Previously, he worked in various technical roles at HotHouse Interactive and Remis Co.