Move and win roundup: Week of October 4, 2021

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover October 4 through 8, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Colenso BBDO appointed Sonya Milford as a senior digital designer. She has worked at Gladeye, TVNZ and TRA. Milford recently founded Hua Collective, a creative group designed to empower QTBIPOC and BIPOC artists, and create a more accessible industry. 

TBWA Media Arts Lab, the bespoke agency for Apple, appointed Kenny Blumenschein as executive creative director for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. He will partner with managing director Michaela Futcher and report to global chief creative officer Brent Anderson. He was most recently SVP and ECD with Energy BBDO, where he worked on Wrigley’s. Prior to that he was creative strategist for Greater China at Facebook, and he has also held roles at Ogilvy, VMLY&R, BBDO and Isobar.

Publicis Groupe hired Laurent Thevenet, previously executive technology director at RGA, as head of creative technology for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, based in Singapore. In addition, the company has appointed Anna Tomasetti as creative community manager and Barbara Messer as head of creative PR, both for the same APAC/MEA territory. (Full story)

LocoNav, a fleet-tech startup based in India, appointed Seema Chawla as chief marketing officer. The appointment was effective in August. She was previously VP and head of marketing at Hike and VP of marketing at Hotstar International. Chawla will seek to unlock consumer-engagement opportunities for the B2B tech brand and also support the company’s purpose-driven marketing and communication strategy. One of her first priorities will be building a multidisciplinary team with global responsibilities. Earlier in her career, Chawla was CMO at Ajio.com, head of marketing at Mattel Toys India and a marketer at The Walt Disney Company India.

Wunderman Thompson hired Maggie Wong, previously Hong Kong MD of Publicis Worldwide and Leo Burnett, as CEO in Hong Kong. Matthew Parry, previously Wunderman Thompson's Hong Kong managing director, is moving to Australia, where he will be MD of the network's Sydney office. (Full story)

Clemenger BBDO Sydney appointed art director Chris Wilson and copywriter Roy Leibowitz as creative directors. The duo was previously with BMF, and M&C Saatchi prior to that. They have a combined two decades of experience. They began their new roles in September and have already delivered a campaign for WA’s TABtouch. The pair's portfolio includes Barista Bros, Aldi, Hyundai, Kia and Tiger Beer.

Integral Ad Science made two appointments in Southeast Asia: Lindsay Williams as country manager and Peter Angelis as director, agency partnerships. Based in Singapore, both will report to Laura Quigley, SVP, APAC. Williams was previously sales director at Forbes Media and Angelis headed platforms and capabilities at OMG Singapore. 

Essence appointed Kota Murakami as managing director for Japan. (Full story)

GroupM New Zealand made two internal promotions, with Vicki Anderson moved up to a new role as head of Trading and Nick Henderson given an expanded role as director of product and technology. In his six years with GroupM, Henderson has played a key role in developing GroupM’s digital services in the performance space, including programmatic expertise through the Xaxis business. He also led the NZ launch of INCA, GroupM’s AI-powered social influencer marketplace, earlier this year. Anderson has been a part of GroupM’s agency investment community for four years and will now focus on leading GroupM’s trading relationships with media vendors and partners, working with agency investment directors at Mindshare, MediaCom and Wavemaker.

OnMobile Global, a provider of mobile entertainment solutions, appointed Lowe Lintas Bangalore as the creative agency for Onmo, its mobile cloud-gaming platform. The scope entails creating the positioning, guidelines and assets, designing the creative strategy and conceiving integrated marketing and advertising campaigns for the brand.

Havas Media Group Australia announced the appointment of Sebastien Leblanc as CFO, effective immediately. Leblanc replaces Philippe Tia, who has relocated to London to take on the role of global CFO for Havas agency Edge Performance Network (EPN).

Clemenger BBDO Sydney’s social and content offering, Flare has been appointed to Carnival Cruise Line’s digital account. Flare will work closely with media agency Speed, which takes on responsibility for media strategy and buying.

Technology provider Switch appointed Andrew Davenport as its managing director. Davenport was previously the managing director of The White Agency (later WhiteGrey) and Valtech Australia.

Strategy consultancy Untangld appointed Abby Johnson as strategy partner. Prior to joining Untangld, Johnson worked with agencies including WhiteGrey, Isobar and HostHavas.

Martech provider Access Intelligence hired Jay Krall as global VP of data. The announcement follows the acquisition of Asia Pacific provider of media monitoring, intelligence and insights, Isentia. Krall's revious roles included being the product owner for Facebook’s first commercial data product, Topic Data, and research and partnership teams at Zignal Labs and Cision.

Lion & Lion appointed Wai Sim Liew as business director of Malaysia to oversee the creative agency’s client servicing in the market. She will report to Jeppe Carlsen, the managing director of Malaysia. She was most recently Ogilvy's client service director. 

Publicis Media won the $20 million Nestle Pakistan media account from Wavemaker. Benish Irshad, the chief operating officer of Starcom Pakistan, has also been named the CEO of Publicis Media in the market.

Justin Drape, who co-founded creative advertising agency The Monkeys, which sold to Accenture in 2017, and Michael Canning, a well-known creative director, have launched a travel platform called Exceptional Alien. The platform, whose name was inspired the US government term for work visas in the arts, science, business, sport and entrepreneurial ventures, began life as a way to share the travel experiences of creative friends, and has evolved into a global online community to share information. 

Imran Mohamad has been appointed as head of marketing for Aimazing, a retail data platform for mall management in Singapore. He will be responsible for overseeing the overall brand and marketing objectives of the group, including shaping the brand’s positioning and market strategy. Mohammed was last head of marketing for Shopback Singapore. 

Dudley White has been appointed head of communications Asia for Manulife. His most recent position was director of external communications at AIA Group in Hong Kong. White reports to Manulife’s chief marketing and experience design officer Asia, Julie Nestor, and global chief communications officer, Laura Vallis.