Move and win roundup: Week of September 26, 2022

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover September 26 through September 30, 2022.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Regional communications agency Sinclair has announced the three senior appointments to prepare for APAC growth:

• Philippa Lui is now the chief financial officer to steer agency growth and ensure ethical standards in cross-border operations. She brings 18 years in finance and operations.
• Carbo Yu now holds the regional executive director title. With 13 years of experience, under the new remit Yu will oversee integrated service offerings and business development. She will continue to serve as chairperson of PRHK.
• Jessica Man has stepped up as managing director, Hong Kong. Man is directly responsible for revenue growth and talent development.

Brainchild Communications Pakistan (BCP), which has a non-ownership franchising agreement with Publicis Groupe in the market, has restructured its leadership teams. As part of the restructuring, several media brands under the Publicis Groupe are being added under BCP, with each media brand led by its unique general manager and their team to help avoid brand client competitor conflicts. Usman Qayam takes over Starcom Pakistan as the new general manager. At the same time, Saud Umar Khan has been named the general manager for Publicis Media, and Urooj Hussain has been promoted to general manager of Mediavest.

Grab Singapore announced it will be working with Singapore’s first-ever Badminton World Champion Loh Kean Yew, as its first Singapore brand ambassador. The partnership will kick off with a series of interactive campaigns that will help consumers engage with both Grab and Kean Yew in fun ways. The official launch saw Kean Yew joining Grab’s immersion programme for a day as he experienced the life of a GrabFood delivery-partner. Donned in the green GrabFood uniform, he made deliveries to five consumers that day.

FCB New Zealand has promoted Leisa Wall and Peter Vegas to co-chief creative officers to deepen their creative leadership across FCB NZ’s client portfolio. Wall and Vegas have a collective 24 years at FCB NZ, most recently as co-ECDs, earning both regional and global recognition for the agency’s creative work for local government offices and corporate clients. Following FCB NZ’s launch of creative data and CRM capability FCB/SIX earlier in 2022, the duo will now also play a pivotal role in bringing data-driven brand experiences to the region by bridging the gap between creativity and data.

Digital creative agency Chimp&z has won the digital and creative mandate for Tata Steel’s wholly owned charitable trust, Tata Steel Foundation after a multi-agency pitch and will be handled by the agency’s Gurgaon and Mumbai offices. Chimp&z will be responsible for creating, managing, and executing end-to-end digital activities like social media, creatives, and campaign strategies. The agency will manage the brand’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, & YouTube accounts while focusing on website development and production-led campaigns.

Recommended content platform Outbrain has been selected by DMG Media as its exclusive recommendation partner a multi-year deal.  Beginning this week, Outbrain will provide a feed of organic and paid content recommendations across web, mobile, and video formats to the readers of DMG Media’s digital newsbrand portfolio, including: dailymail.co.uk, dailymail.com.au (Australia), dailymail.com (US), Metro.co.uk, Thisismoney.co.uk and the Daily Mail app; alongside Harmsworth Media’s inews.co.uk. This new partnership gives Outbrain an increased footprint of 1.1 billion monthly pageviews.

EssenceMediacom is appointing Benjamin Wei as China CEO for the merged agency. Currently Essence China CEO, Wei will report to both Patrick Xu, CEO, WPP and GroupM Greater China, as well as Rupert McPetrie, CEO, EssenceMediacom APAC. His appointment will take into effect in October and the merged agency is looking at a Januray 2023 launch date. 

PHD Hong Kong has tapped Antony Yiu as its chief executive officer. Yiu will lead PHD’s vision, development, operations and talent growth in his new role. In addition, he will also be responsible for driving digital transformation, addressing data privacy issues and maximising the use of adtech and martech across clients’ businesses.

Iris Worldwide has appointed Priya Kalidas as head of growth, and Mei Mei Ng as creative group head (art). Kalidas first joined the company in October 2021, and after a brief hiatus, she rejoined in a newly created role to drive the growth of the company. She will report to Singapore MD, Andy Cairns. Meanwhile, Ng will report to Cristina “Tin” Sanchez who recently came on board as ECD.

Jane Morgan departs PR firm Golin Hong Kong after six years to relocate to Singapore with her family. Former vice president Carol Yeung steps up to succeed her as managing director. Yeung will continue to work in her capacity as Hong Kong’s ESG lead as well.

Sydney-based independent agency SLIK has been appointed as Darrell Lea’s creative agency of record, responsible for brand strategy, creative and production, following a competitive pitch. SLIK has recently expanded its portfolio with wins across categories including insurance, charity and superannuation, with key clients such as Qantas, Nine, nib, Active Super, and Redkite.

Landor & Fitch has announced Juanita Zhang and Peggy Hon as general manager of China and Hong Kong respectively to meet the rising demand for transformation among brands in the region. The duo will head up a team of senior leadership and creative talents across Landor & Fitch’s studios in mainland China and Hong Kong to drive a new level of strategic growth for Landor & Fitch in Greater China.

The A-Leagues has appointed Mango Melbourne, part of DDB Group, as its consumer PR agency.

Jaywing has been appointed by New Balance to drive customer growth across Australia and New Zealand following a competitive pitch. Jaywing will manage paid search, social, analytics and email, as well as provide creative support for New Balance’s sneakers and sports clothing.

Rumble Studios has opened a new sound design and music studio in South Melbourne. Spearheaded by senior sound designer Liam Annert, it will give creatives, producers, and directors access to new on the ground sound production facilities and expertise, as well as access to Rumble’s Sydney studio capabilities. 

Mindshare Hong Kong has announced the appointment of Winston Tai as head of growth. In this new role, Tai will be responsible for the agency’s business growth strategy and its implementation to help drive Good Growth for its people, clients and the community. Prior to this, he was head of marketing effectiveness at HSBC, where he led the data-driven marketing performance transformation agenda in 17 markets across APAC, and took a central role in the measurement and optimisation framework. 

MSL has appointed Suzy Goulding as head of sustainability APAC and MEA to oversee the sustainability practice in these regions. She will lead strategy development and steer sustainability efforts for clients handled under MSL and support an integrated approach to ESG-related endeavours. Goulding was previously at MullenLowe Salt, where she was the APAC managing director for both the strategic communications agency and its specialist practice, MullenLowe Sustainability, which she launched three years ago. 

Zeno Group has hired Claire McDonald as executive vice president, talent, APAC and global projects. In this new role, McDonald will provide leadership across an expanded view of talent for the region, encompassing all aspects of the employee experience, culture and agency marketing. McDonald brings more than 18 years of experience with the Daniel J. Edelman Group, having previously held the role of HR director at Edelman Southeast Asia. In her new role, she will report to chief talent officer Carol Gronlund.

UEG Worldwide recently announced its expansion into APAC and has made a series of senior hires. Led by EVP Si Philby, UEG APAC covers 12 markets and has merged the Background Creative Counsel network across the region. To add, Piers Hopkins joins as director for UEG’s China operations. Two APAC general managers have also been announced: Isobel Howard, former GM of Background Creative Counsel; and Rosie Ranck, formerly of M&C Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy.Plus, the development of a new culture board will feature:

• Dan Flower, global managing director of The Face Magazine
• Ali Hillman, international art curator and founder of Friday Trampoline
• Melvin Tanaya, co-founder and design director of luxury streetwear brand Song for the Mute
• Lauren Yates, Bangkok-based designer, photographer and founder of Wmenswear
• Benji B, music director for Louis Vuitton and head of Deviation Music
• Samie Oliver, executive producer of Background Creative Counsel and co-chair of the UEG APAC Culture Board

Independent creative, design and media agency Enigma has appointed Chris Richardson to the newly created role of executive director of digital. He will be responsible for boosting the agency’s data and technology offering and leading its national digital team as well as lead the digital function across Enigma’s three offices. Richardson was most recently CMO at fintech startup Beforepay, and prior to that, he was director of digital at Edelman.

Bastion Reputation has appointed Elliot Giakalis as its new principal consultant, media, and public affairs. He will lead the company’s media and public affairs practice after he spent more than three years at Australia Post where he managed the national media team, provided strategic counsel to senior executives nationally, and was the speechwriter for successive CEOs. Prior to that, Giakalis was a senior media adviser to the Victorian Treasurer, Tim Pallas. In this role, he oversaw and executed the media strategy on four Victorian State Budgets and several significant government financial transactions, including the lease of the Port of Melbourne.