Barry Cupples set to depart Asia-Pacific; Cheuk Chiang to lead OMG in the region

Cupples, who is tipped to relocate to the UK this summer, has been offered a newly created global CEO position to lead OMG’s investment and capability development. The move follows the recent departure of Johan Boserup, who left his role as OMG's chief trading and accountability officer worldwide to become global CEO of Trading at WPP’s GroupM in October 2012.
 
Cupples took charge of OMG Asia-Pacific in 2007, following the appointment of Mike Cooper as chief executive of PHD Worldwide. He is credited with building OMG into a powerful competitor in Asia-Pacific. He hired Chiang from Cummins Nitro as one of the first major moves in the region, and managed OMD until 2011, when Steve Blakeman was named as Asia-Pacific CEO of the agency.
 
He leaves behind a healthy business that racked up more than US$400 million in new billings for OMD from 180 clients and 90 new business wins worth $623 million for PHD, according to R3’s 2012 New Business League. OMD also earned the top spot in the Recma Compitches report.  
 
One of Chiang’s top priorities in his new role will be to fill the vacant CEO post at PHD. According to industry sources, OMG is in talks with five candidates, both internal and external, for the job.
 
Chiang joined PHD in July 2008 with the brief to push the network’s pioneering position. During his tenure, PHD has punched well above its weight and was recently named Campaign Asia-Pacific's Media Network of the Year. He moved to Melbourne in 2012 for family reasons following PHD’s win of the global account for banking giant ANZ, and is now expected to run the region for OMG from Singapore.