Move and win roundup: Week of September 12, 2022

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover September 12 through September 16, 2022.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Bangalore-based brand experience agency Younion has appointed Vidyadhar Kunnath as senior vice president for client servicing. Prior to this, Kunnath held leadership positions with George P Johnson and Showtime Events across industries such as IT, auto, and telco.

Host/Havas has made several new hires to their creative and design department. Senior creatives Anastasia Simone and Jay Lee join from Leo Burnett Hong Kong, bringing with them a gaming development and digital-focused skillset, with Simone recently sitting on the gaming jury at D&AD. Ash Myburgh, formerly of Ogilvy and It’s Friday, joins as a senior creative. Her recent Secret Menu work for KFC picked up at Cannes, D&AD, Clios, AdFest, Effies and AdStars. Josh Bell, a graduate of D&AD Shift 2022, joins as a junior creative and content creator across the Havas Creative Group. Senior designers Kristen Burnshaw and Daniel Conway join the design department, working into department head Nic Adamovich.

Digital marketing agency Tug Sydney has been appointed by Bluebeam, a global developer of software solutions and services for the architecture and construction sectors, to drive digital marketing across Asia Pacific following a competitive pitch. Tug will manage all paid media for Bluebeam including search, display and video, across key markets including Australia, New Zealand and India. 

Singapore's National Youth Council has appointed Team Lewis as its agency partner for social and digital content creation, management and optimisation for Somerset Belt, a key project under the SG Youth Action Plan that aims to become an entrepreneurial, creative and incubation space for youths.

Mumbai-based advertising, marketing and media industry body, The Advertising Club, has re-elected Partha Sinha as president and named the following managing committee members to lead the body:

• Prasanth Kumar
• Vikram Sakhuja
• Ajay Kakar
• Debabrata Mukherjee
• Rahul Johri
• Aditya Swamy
• Manasi Narasimhan   

Tap Digital Media Ventures (TapDMV) has appointed Endeavor Streaming to launch TapGO TV, the Philippines' first pure-play SVOD mobile TV service. It marks Endeavor Streaming's entry into the Philippines OTT market. The service will cary over 40 live TV channels from pay TV networks along with TapDMV's owned and operated sports and entertainment linear services. 

EssenceMediacom has named Jin Choi as its South Korea CEO. Choi has been heading MediaCom as managing director in South Korea for over three years, and will soon lead the merged agency which launches in January 2023. He will report to both Michael Beecroft, CEO, GroupM Northeast Asia and Rupert McPetrie, CEO, EssenceMediacom APAC. Jay Lee, who has been heading Essence as managing director in South Korea for over four years, will take up leadership of GroupM Nexus in the market. 

Weber Shandwick has appointed Nachum Kaplan as senior vice president, client experience (financial communications), Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Kaplan brings over 25 years of international experience in financial and capital markets and is tasked to provide counsel to the firm’s clients on complex business issues, including mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, restructurings, C-suite transitions, litigation, regulatory matters, and investor relations. He spent part of his career at Reuters News and at the International Financing Review at Thomson Reuters in Singapore as editor in charge for the Asian financial markets and Asia-Pacific bureau chief. 

Virtue has appointed Germaine Ng as account director. Ng will be responsible for driving new business growth and expanding the agency’s reach across the region in this newly created role. She joins Virtue after three years at TBWA Singapore where as associate brand director, she managed the global remit for Standard Chartered. She has also worked at M&C Saatchi and U-studio, the in-house agency for Unilever on brands including Dove, Clear, Pond’s and Ben & Jerry’s.

DDB Group’s Tribal has promoted Kenny McLeod to the role of head of customer experience on the Volkswagen Group account. McLeod joined DDB Group’s digital experience arm in 2019 as group business director for Volkswagen Group. In his new role, he will assume a leadership role on the account, working alongside managing partner Nick Russo.

Fyllo, the data-driven marketing and regulatory solutions platform, has appointed Victor Cheng as VP to lead North Asia. Cheng will report to Robert Woolfrey, managing director, Asia Pacific, who recently launched operations for the company in the region. Cheng has held technology, media, and data leadership roles for over twenty years, culminating in his recent role as chair of the IAB in Hong Kong. He will be responsible for the development of Fyllo’s marketing and regulatory solutions in North Asia. Prior to this, he held leadership roles with ComScore and Microsoft.

Isabella Lau, chief customer officer for Manulife Hong Kong exits after nearly 12 years with the company. Named 'Marketer of the Year' and winner of the 'Distinguished Marketing Leadership Awards' at the Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) and Television Broadcasts Ltd. (TVB) Awards for Marketing Excellence 2016 during her long tenure, Lau’s key responsibilities at Manulife included strengthening brand and communications presence, building customer experience, CRM, consumer insights, digital marketing, and overall innovation for the company. A member of the Global Brand Council at Manulife, Lau is replaced by HyounJoo Choe, who was previously the regional head of customer experience and design at Manulife Asia, overseeing the CX transformation agenda and customer engagement.

Edelman Indonesia appoints Melvin Goo as COO. Goo will be at the helm of the firm’s growth in Indonesia and work at delivering industry-leading integrated marketing communications solutions for its clients. Previously, he was the marketing director at tech start-up Cashbac, driving both its revenue and reputation mandates. A seasoned business leader with over 16 years’ experience, Goo has worked across reputed PR and Media agencies in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. In the current role, Goo will report to Edelman’s Southeast Asia CEO Adrian Warr.

Steve Fontanot takes on the role of commercial managing director, Asia-Pacific at Havas while continuing to lead the Havas Blvd agency as its managing director. With over 20 years' experience in the industry, Fontanot's resume includes founding Chieftain Communications (acquired in 2014), leading Making Waves Australia and driving DDB Australia’s PR, experiential and sponsorship division, Mango. Based in the Greater Sydney Area, under the new remit, Fontanot will oversee M&A and commercial partnerships to strengthen the Havas Group offering in the Asia-Pacific region.

Foodpanda appoints Mindshare as its agency of record in Hong Kong. Mindshare will be responsible for managing the delivery giants’ holistic media strategy, buying and planning duties, as well as its data analytics and audience insights. The appointment is effective from Q2, 2022.

Mediabrands appoints Olivia Warren managing director of Mediabrands Content Studio to their executive leadership team (ELT). Effective immediately, Warren will work alongside MBCS’ sister brands including UM, Initiative and Reprise—to bring greater market insights, MBCS’ perspective,  and capabilities to the leadership team. 

Jellysmack's ANZ and SEA country manager Ezechiel Ritchie has been elevated to an expanded regional role as general manager of APAC. Ritchie, came on board last year, and previously held executive roles at Google and Taboola; he was also at the helm when Jellysmack launched its Creator Program in Australia in October 2021. The role is effective immediately.

Independent creative agency, Across the Pond hires Andrea Lau as the new creative director for its Singapore office. Lau comes with over 16 years of freelance creative experience collaborating with prominent names such as TBWA, Wunderman Thompson and Leo Burnett, and Apple among others. In her current full-time role, Lau will lead and build the creative team working across all clients, but with a focus on Google and TikTok.

Independent media agency Atomic 212° appoints HR executive Jacinta Munro as head of people and culture. Munro brings more than 20 years’ experience in people and culture initiatives and will work on defining the formula to attract and retain great talent in a competitive market, as well as building leadership learning frameworks that shape the industry leaders of the future.

Content marketing engine Convo Ink has appointed Australian Radio Network’s Lena Rapley into the newly created role of head of sales to drive new business growth. Rapley was previously at ARN, where for more than 12 years, she held multiple leadership roles including head of client solutions and commercial partnerships director. Most recently working as independent sales director, she held commercial responsibility for ARN’s radio and digital strategies across Australia's independent agencies. In the current remit, Rapley will be responsible for cross-screen content solutions, attention analytics platform and dynamic optimisation capabilities.

The Works, part of Capgemini, has promoted Julie Dormand to the newly created role of managing director. Dormand, who previously occupied the position of managing partner on a contract basis providing maternity cover for Kristie Thistlewaite, will stay on at the agency permanently. She will oversee the agency’s key business planning initiatives, commercials, people & culture, growth and general management. 

Ooni Pizza Ovens has appointed FleishmanHillard, part of TBWA locally, to its public relations account across Australia following a competitive pitch. The agency has been tasked with launching the brand in Australia later this month. Its remit will include PR, earned creative, influencer marketing and brand partnerships.

Bastion Films has rebranded as Bastion Make to reflect its newly expanded production capabilities including an in-house production studio with more than 30 on-site craft specialists. The in-house team includes two editors or shooters, two digital producers, a supervising producer, EP of digital, a print producer, finished artist, animators, production company producers, traditional agency producers, and animation producers.

El Kwang has been appointed chief commercial officer at The Venues Collection based in Sydney. Kwang recently led the programme for the Forces of Change Leadership Series with Marina Bay Sands, and was the co-chair of the Rome and Bangkok editions of the SITE (Society for Incentive Travel Excellence) Global Conference. Kwang also recently finished a three-year stint as VP of finance and development on the SITE global board of directors. 

Go Communications has been appointed to manage PR and communications for the 26th World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT 2022), which will take place from 13 to 15 September at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre in Penang, Malaysia.