Dentsu appoints Ted Lim as chief creative officer for Asia

Lim, originally from Malaysia, will be based in Singapore and is due to begin his new role on 1 April. He joins Dentsu after a short stint (less than a year) as chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Singapore, but is best known for his work at Naga DDB in Malaysia, where he spent 20 years. At Dentsu Asia, he will oversee creative work across the ASEAN and Oceania regions.

The development marks the network’s first major regional hire since Dick van Motman came on board as Dentsu Asia’s chairman and chief executive in October. Van Motman noted that Dentsu had “embarked on an aggressive plan of expansion” over the past year and described Lim as “well known within the industry and with clients for being an outstanding creative mind”. Lim said he was excited to join Dentsu at a time when the agency was “undergoing a creative renaissance”.

Dentsu Asia has a low profile in terms of creative work relative to Dentsu in Japan. Van Motman said Lim was someone with a balance of business acumen, creative ability and cultural affinity who would be able to help "reinvent" the network.

"When I embarked on this exciting journey to untap the potential of the Dentsu brand, my first priority was to have a creative partner with me—someone that was about reinvention, bridging cultures, had a stellar track record and was someone you can spend day and night with," van Motman said. "[Lim] is that person."

Dentsu Asia recently opened for business in Myanmar with an office in Yangon.