Y&R Asia appoints chief strategy officer

Cotton, who starts work from 1 July, will be based in Singapore and will spearhead the development of strategy for clients as well as thought leadership for Y&R in the region.

Ambar Brahmachary, CEO of Y&R Asia, said that Cotton’s arrival completes his senior management team, which includes Marcus Rebeschini, Y&R Asia’s chief creative officer.

“Neil has worked in Europe, the US and for a long time now across all markets in Asia. I think this mixture of perspectives from a strategic point of view is invaluable in an increasingly complex global marketing environment,” said Brahmachary.

For the last two and a half years Cotton has been running his own communications planning consultancy, GMT+8, in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Prior to that, Cotton was head of strategy for Bates141 and then Lowe in Asia. Before moving to Asia, Neil spent 10 years working in New York, most recently at Ogilvy and Mather where he was a worldwide group planning director on IBM and Coca-Cola.

“This is an incredibly exciting time to be joining; with large networks struggling to re-invent for today’s changing world I believe Y&R has the attitude, ability and leadership to really surprise the marketplace” said Cotton