40 Under 40 2021: Rafidah Rashid, DeVries Global

Rafidah Rashid

Managing director SG/SEA
DeVries Global
Singapore

Rafidah Rashid recently celebrated her 11-year milestone at IPG as the youngest agency leader in DeVries Global’s history. Not bad for someone who was once told that she shouldn’t have been hired in the first place since she didn’t come from the right background.

It’s fair to say that Rashid has more than proved her naysayers wrong. Beginning her career at Weber Shandwick in 2010,  in a dual role as an associate in corporate and consumer practices, she later accelerated her digital-marketing expertise with a six-month stint at content marketing agency King Content. Thereafter, she joined DeVries as an account manager and quickly rose through the ranks to become managing director of the Singapore office.

Since taking the helm at DeVries Singapore, Rashid has grown into one of the most progressive leaders in IPG, attaining two years of 20%+ growth, winning industry awards, and pioneering offerings and talent innovations for the region. In the last two years alone, she has navigated the agency through the pandemic, preserving jobs while securing double-digit growth. So far in 2021 she has helped to triple the agency’s creative-led revenue by expanding into new sectors in gaming technology and sports with two new business wins.

A skilled and effective leader, Rashid designed hybrid talent model that allows her team to play multiple roles in their day-to-day, adding value to clients and providing alternative career trajectories for the agency’s staffers. Coming from a minority group in Singapore, Rashid is also a passionate diversity advocate and holds ‘Decode Download’ sessions where teams learn and celebrate different cultures.

From starting her journey as an “average” intern to being a successful leader in the agency today, Rashid has admirably risen above her underdog status, turning each challenge into an achievement. Not only this, but she has also helped shift the agency’s core business from a traditional PR-based company into a forward-thinking integrated marketing and communications agency.