Move and win roundup: Week of October 24, 2022

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover October 24 through 28, 2022.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Sustainability app Abillion has hired Laura Kantor in a newly created role as VP of marketing and growth. Her responsibilities will include all brand marketing, creative, planning, strategy and growth activities, reporting directly into CEO and founder Vikas Garg. With over 13 years in marketing and strategy, Kantor is best known for her leadership of marketing and sustainability at Foodpanda Singapore over the last six years. During this time, she grew the business over 100x, launched six business units & grew the marketing team from three to 32 professionals.

Melbourne based creative agency Snack Drawer has expanded its footprint with the opening of a Sydney office and added three new hires following a rush of new business wins, including the Netflix ANZ social account. Joining are: Andrew Brentnall as head of social media and content; Steph Panecasio as editorial lead; and creator Patrick Ilagan. 

Experiential agency Bastion Experience has made senior appointments to its Melbourne team spanning its three key business pillars – strategic partnerships, creative strategy and brand experiences. The appointments see Emily MacFarlane join as client director, Marnie McManus as strategic partnerships director and Ally Deacon as lead creative strategist. Meanwhile in Sydney, the agency has appointed Jack Playfair as client director for experience. 

Sorcha John has left The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) where she was managing partner for two-and-a-half years. She was also managing partner at Anak, TSLA's brand and design unit. She has now joined Marina Bay Sands as vice president of brand. Prior to TSLA, John spent 10 years at Iris.

Havas Immerse Malaysia has appointed Donevan Chew as chief creative officer, taking over from Kerry Khoo. In his new role, Chew will lead the strategic vision and creative offering for the firm. He was previously the creative partner at Muma Malaysia and has over 22 years of experience as a creative. 

Hill+Knowlton Strategies has promoted Angela Kung to vice president of financial communications and Madison Wai to vice president of corporate communications. Also, as co-general manager of H+K Hong Kong, Kung and Wai will partner to lead the firm’s business development and operations in Hong Kong. Being in the leadership group of H+K Greater Bay Area, Kung and Wai will report to Jun Xu, CEO, H+K China, on their collective responsibility to drive operational integration and continued growth in the sub-region.

IPG Mediabrands has appointed Elina Peek Lantz as managing director of Reprise. Lantz joins Reprise from her previous role as head of digital strategy and (media) planning at Maxis. She has 17 years’ experience working with international teams in corporate and start-up environments. She will be responsible for innovating Reprise’s product and service capabilities and work in close collaboration with partner agencies UM and Initiative to drive the strategic direction of performance marketing, analytics, and technology channels across all clients.

Experience marketplace Big Red Group has appointed independent media agency Kaimera to its agency roster. The agency will support the digital transformation across two portfolio brands, RedBalloon and Adrenaline. Kaimera will be responsible for their media strategies, including media planning and buying across performance, social, digital and OOH channels. 

Rahul Welde, formerly the executive vice president of global digital transformation at Unilever has joined The Parentinc board as independent non-executive director.

Speyside Group, a corporate affairs and public policy consultancy, has promoted Tommy Mulianta as associate director of its Indonesia team. Mulianta has been with Speyside for three years, joining as a senior consultant in 2019. As associate director, he will continue to advise on government relations and public affairs strategy for multinationals, while also focusing on driving new business in the market across key sectors including healthcare, technology and the sustainability space. He will work with Speyside’s team of local advisors in Indonesia. Working from Jakarta, Mulianta will work closely with Saskia Kendall, Speyside’s Singapore-based chief operating officer in Asia Pacific on cross-market collaborations with the group’s network of offices across the region.

MTR Lab, a subsidiary of MTR Corporation, announced the appointment of Michael Chan as managing director with immediate effect. Chan will lead MTR Lab to help MTR Corporation invest in, collaborate and co-create with like-minded partners working in mobility (Mobility as a Service (MaaS), new mobility modes, rail tech), retail, property, financial and data services, smart city technology and sustainability. Chan previously served as chief operating officer and MD at Inchcape Greater China, managing overall operations and formulating strategies that ensured the continuous growth and success of the business. Additionally, Chan serves as an independent non-executive director of Integrated Waste Solutions Holdings Limited.

Yahoo has made key appointments to strengthen its adtech business. Matt Farrington joins as APAC head of partnerships & investment; Sandra Lin joins as the new APAC head of DSP strategy; and Kenneth Koh joins as head of DSP in Southeast Asia. Farrington will drive Yahoo’s investment strategy in the region and oversee commercial trading relationships with agencies and clients. He previously held leadership roles at Omnicom and GroupM. Lin will oversee the strategy for Yahoo's ad platforms and unified ad tech stack, focusing on growing product adoption across the region. She was formerly leading programmatic initiatives at Google. Meanwhile, Koh will manage Yahoo’s platform specialist team. He was previously leading the platforms and search teams at Google for SEA. Additionally, Terence Lim joins as Yahoo’s business lead for SEA. He will work closely with partners and agencies to help brands future-proof their marketing strategies and achieve their business goals through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack. Natalie Phang joins as data and insights strategist for SEA where she will leverage her data strategy experience built across APAC and the EU, to help Yahoo’s agency and brand clients in SEA maximise their marketing investment for the cookieless world. 

Redhill has appointed Farah Zuber as a senior director responsible for growing Redhill’s operations in Malaysia. Based in the agency’s Singapore’s headquarters, she will focus on business development and client acquisition while supporting the agency’s leadership team in Singapore, particularly in the areas of technology and finance. In this dual role, Zuber reports to Umesh Nair, deputy managing director at Redhill. With over 12 years of experience in PR, Zuber’s portfolio includes stints at SPAG and Edelman.

Jessica White has been appointed as CEO of Reprise Australia. White has held senior role internationally and locally within Mediabrands, recently returning to Australia from NYC while maintaining her global head of activation role with Initiative. Prior this role, she was head of data and technology for AKA Kinesso NYC where she drove the commercial data and programmatic strategy across the business. Reporting directly to CEO Mediabrands Australia, Mark Coad, White will take a place on Mediabrands’ executive leadership team. White takes over from Andy Holford who stepped into the role of interim CEO earlier this year.

Dentsu Creative has named key members of its global leadership team. Andrea Terrassa has been named global chief operating officer; Iván Czwan Altobelli as global chief people officer; Julie Scelzo as global clients chief creative officer; and Jon Dupuis as global clients president. 

Australian consultancy BeingIconic launches in Asia with investment from Singapore-based Avyan Holdings. Avyan was founded by Vishnu Mohan, the former chairman and CEO of Havas Group in SEA, India, Japan and Korea. A string of other Australian agency leaders have invested in BeingIconic's AU$1 million pre-seed round. Mike Wilson, former chairman and founding CEO of Havas Media Australia, co-founder, Naked Communications and currently the non-executive director and strategic advisor at BeingIconic is an investor. Clemenger Group’s board director, James Neale and Jack Byrne are also investors, meanwhile Singapore-based Jack Lim, former chief commercial officer at Mediacorp is the principal of BeingIconic in Asia. 

Simon Hobbs, a Drupal veteran with more than 30 years of experience, is joining integrated communications firm Icon Agency, as executive director of digital. In this newly created role, Hobbs will lead Icon’s digital department with a focus on new business development and optimising the team’s processes and systems.

Publicis Groupe Southeast Asia appoints Sujith Rao as managing director of Publicis Commerce to accelerate the agency’s commerce offering in the region and further unlock client growth. Rao will be based in Kuala Lumpur in the new role, and work to strengthen a deeper connection between the commerce strategy and solutions with the agency’s creative, media, performance, and production capabilities. He will also deliver on data-driven end-to-end consumer journeys that are optimised towards sales and business growth.

Insights company Ipsos has elevated its global executive Hamish Munro as its new APAC CEO, as the outgoing Christophe Cambournac moves into a global role within the business. Munro moves into the new remit after three years as Ipsos’ global head of interactive services. Previously, he has had stints as CEO of Australia and New Zealand (2013 to 2015), CEO of South-East Asia (2016 to 2017) and CEO of APAC Operations (2017 to 2019).