Maggie Chao becomes GM of Bates Taiwan

Chao (pictured) will report to Tyson Deng, chairman of David Advertising. David Advertising Taiwan was merged into the Bates group in 2007.

Chao has over 18 years of advertising agency experience. Prior to her new role at Bates Taiwan, she was Vice President of David Advertising for over three years, and had worked for the company for almost 11 years. Before there, Chao worked at H&Y Marketing Communications (now known as Hakuhodo Communications) and Taiwan Advertising (now known as Dentsu Taiwan).

Her client history includes work with Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Sony Ericsson.

Chao filled the leadership position left vacant by Henry Chu, who worked for the agency for six years. He resigned in July citing health reasons.

She will work closely with Jimmy Jiang, business director, and Richard Yu, Bates Taiwan’s long serving executive creative director. Along with the 50-strong team at Bates, they will be nurturing key clients including Pizza Hut, Vitalon Mei-Chao diet tea, LG, Lian Hwa Foods Corporation, Isabelle Wedding Cakes, and Häagen-Dazs.

"Chao together with executive creative director Richard Yu is a very exciting combination," Deng said. "I believe the duo can help build up more successful brands of all Bates Taiwan’s clients.”

Reported last August, former Y&R and Wunderman Taiwan general manager Alice Hsu joined David Advertising Taiwan as managing director from 1 September. Meanwhile Tricia Liu, general manager of David Advertising Taiwan since 2007 has also recently taken on the role of board director and will be responsible for strategic training for both David Advertising and the Bates Taiwan team.

Bates has also been undergoing a number of changes in an effort to rebuild its brand strengthen its offering, both internally and to clients. In its third rebranding exercise in recent years, the agency has dropped the ‘141’ from its name, and adopted a new ‘changengage’ philosophy and corporate identity to underline its new agency model.