Move and win roundup: Week of June 3, 2024

The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, has announced some changes to the senior strategy team, effective immediately.

• Milla McPhee has been appointed to the role of chief strategy pfficer. McPhee expands on her Accenture Song remit as managing director of strategy for Growth Markets to now lead strategy for The Monkeys. Prior to this, she worked in strategy at Adam&EveDDB London and Droga5 New York and was also client side as head of brand & creative strategy at Amazon in the United Kingdom. McPhee succeeds Hugh Munro, who left The Monkeys and founded his own business, Rick Barry.
• Ben de Castella has been promoted to head of planning. He joined The Monkeys in 2021 as business strategy director. His previous roles include group strategy director at VCCP London and strategic planning director at Digitas Hong Kong, where he worked on brands including Transport for London, Compare the Market and Nike.

Iris has appointed Shea Warnes as new chief strategy officer, Singapore. In the new role, he will report to Rebecca Nadilo, managing director of Iris Singapore. Warnes joins from Dentsu Creative, where he was head of strategy based in Singapore. He has worked in New York, London, Australia and Singapore. With unique experience that bridges tech, social and brand from over 15 years in senior roles at companies such as Meta, BBH London and Havas, he also launched Media.Monks for ANZ in 2020.

Cheil India has appointed Mandeep Sharma as the national head of their Samsung business. Sharma will report to Sanjeev Jasani, COO, Cheil SWA. With more than three decades of experience, has has managed multiple roles across the brand and agency sides. His expertise lies in CRM, customer engagement, sales, and product management. Before Cheil India, he was EVP of McCann Worldgroup India and led MRM. In the past, he has also held positions with Thompson Connect (JWT) and Ogilvy One.  

Madison Digital, the digital unit of Madison World, has appointed Nimesh Shah as general manager for Madison Digital. He will co-lead the western region alongside Vineet Shah and will report directly to Vishal Chinchankar, CEO of Madison Digital and Madison Media Alpha. Nimesh has over 14 years of experience in digital marketing out of which 6 years have been at Madison. Apart from Madison, he has worked in companies like Kuoni India, Talwalkars Fitness Ltd; and prior to returning to Madison, he was at Essence Mediacom. 

Havas Singapore has promoted Kenny Yap to chief operating officer of Havas Play, the specialised division within Havas Media Network, as part of its expansion in Singapore. Yap will work closely with Russell Lai, chief commercial officer of Havas Media Network Singapore, and both will continue to report to Rana Barua, group CEO, India, Southeast Asia and North Asia. Yap joined Havas in 2017 as managing director of Havas Group Singapore. He has been instrumental in driving yearly double-digit growth for the agency in Singapore. Before joining Havas, he worked at Hill+Knowlton, Strategies Vibes Communications and Grayling.

Sling & Stone has won a competitive pitch to represent Domino’s in Australia and New Zealand. The global fast-food pizza restaurant partnered with Sling & Stone to amplify product launches, occasions and creative communications in these two territories. Domino’s is the largest pizza chain in Australia and New Zealand in terms of both network and sales. According to Australian media, it is the first time the pizza brand has partnered with an external agency. Prior to this, Domino’s PR was handled in-house.

Archetype has appointed Liz Weselby as managing director of its Australian business. Before joining Archetype Australia, she was managing director in Hong Kong. She joined the agency in 2020 and became a member of Archetype’s APAC Regional Management Board in 2021. Prior to Archetype, Weselby was managing partner and editorial director at LUXE City Guide based in Hong Kong. She also worked for Ink in Singapore and Post Publishing in Bangkok.

Starcom Australia has announced two key appointments to its leadership team.

• Scott McCaffrey has joined the agency as chief client and growth officer. With over 20 years of experience in client service, McCaffrey will be responsible for developing and executing strategies that elevate the quality of service for existing clients. Before joining Starcom, he was national head of growth for Dentsu Media.
• Jacqui Purcell has been promoted to the newly created role of national head of planning. Purcell was previously client services director.

C27 has announced its partnership with Experiential Design Team (EDT). At its core, EDT specialises in creating immersive, interactive experiences that blur the line between digital and physical realities. With EDT's expertise in creating immersive experiences, C27 aims to push the boundaries of brand engagement, both online and offline.

Smartly, the AI-powered adtech company, has appointed Bertilla Teo as CEO for APAC. Teo brings over 20 years of experience in advertising. Prior to Smartly, she worked for Publicis Groupe for over ten years and was CEO of Publicis Groupe, China, before she left the agency group in 2020. 

Polka Yu has left BCW after 16 years at the agency, an announcement that follows the recent departure of Matt Stafford as president of Asia-Pacific. Yu was deputy APAC president who oversaw BCW’s Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia markets, Yu initially worked in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou helping MNCs with their China campaigns and relocated to Hong Kong in 2014, supporting Chinese companies with their going-global strategies. BCW and Hill & Knowlton will merge on July 1 to form Burson.

The Media Specialists Association (MSA) has selected Sheila Shanmugam, CEO of Mindshare Group Malaysia, as its new president. Vanitha Selvathurai, partner and head of Carat, will be the vice president of the association. 

WPIC Marketing + Technologies has appointed Zarina Kanji as managing director, UK and Europe. Before joining WPIC, Kanji was head of business development and marketing for Tmall Global at Alibaba Group. She also served as VP of global fashion and sport brand partnerships at Lazada Group in Singapore. She was a fashion buyer for Ralph Lauren, Jaeger, and House of Fraser in her early career.

Nirmal Nair, VP of marketing and sales at Nissan ASEAN, has left the company. Nair managed operating budgets, transformation, GTM strategy, and brand and revenue growth. He wrote in a LinkedIn post: "After 14 remarkable years, during which I had the privilege of working with and leading teams across eight diverse roles in five countries across two continents, it’s time to close this significant chapter in my life”. Nair joined the brand as a marketing operations manager in Europe and moved to Thailand as VP of marketing and CMO. Before Nissan, he worked at FCA Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for over six years. Nair was selected into Campaign’s Power List in 2021. 

Yves Briantais has left Colgate-Palmolive after 17 years to join Carlsberg in Denmark as chief marketing officer. The Frenchman had spent more than five years with the brand in Hong Kong and Singapore, before reloacting to the US after being appointed global executive vice president of design and creative capabilties, which was first annouced by Campaign. However, six months after the relocation, Briantais left to join Carlsberg.

Uniplan, an independent brand experience agency, has appointed global operation specialists Tangram to support its digital transformation after a rigorous RFP process. Tangram will streamline and consolidate operations for the event specialist agency, implementing new platforms and technology to streamline workflows and standardise processes across Uniplan’s eight global offices. The partnership signifies a strategic move to modernise Uniplan’s technology and align its processes with a client-centric, data-driven approach.

Orchard, a creative technology agency, has promoted practice lead Hannah Bissex to the newly created role of managing partner, health, to support and further strengthen the agency’s healthcare marketing division. Initially joining Orchard in 2015 as a group account director, Bissex has been instrumental to the agency’s success. Throughout her career, Bissex has held positions both in the UK and Australia and worked across clients, including GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Biogen, and Roche, and launched healthcare campaigns in all areas of health, including oncology, analgesia, cardiology, respiratory, haematology, and animal health. 

Do What You Love, the creative agency behind Bali’s Suara Festival (July 26-28), has appointed global brand communications agency Manifest as its communications agency of record, tasked with managing and executing all public relations services across Asia Pacific. As lead agency, Manifest’s Melbourne studio will provide brand comms services for Suara across Australia and Southeast Asia and oversee publicity efforts across the region in the event’s key markets: Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, India and Singapore.

TripTK has promoted Louise Newson to managing partner, APAC & EMEA. Newson joined as principal of APAC last year.  Before TripTK, she worked at ?What If! Innovation. Prior to that, she served at Kantar and FutureBrand as brand consultant. 

DDB has promoted Mike Napolitano to Melbourne Group CEO as the agency continues its growth trajectory. In the new role, he will continue to be responsible for leading the DDB Group in Melbourne including brands DDB, Tribal, Rapp and Mango. Napolitano joined the agency in 2020 and was DDB Melbourne managing director. He has also attracted top talent like group executive creative director Psembi Kinstan, head of planning Matt Pearce, head of DDB group experience Ella Ward, and chief operating officer Tristan Alexander to the agency’s leadership team. Napolitano has more than 23 years of experience in brand and marketing communications. Prior to DDB, he was managing director of TBWA Melbourne and has also worked in leadership roles at George Patterson Y&R. Last week, DDB Melbourne appointed Khia Croy as its new general manager. 

Domino’s Pizza has awarded its social media remit to Havas Malaysia. Under the remit, Havas will oversee the brand's social media activations and influencer marketing iniatives. As part of Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd, which holds the Australian-owned master franchise for Domino’s in several countries (including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore), this move is significant. Domino’s Malaysia boasts over 270 stores, making it the largest Domino’s market in Southeast Asia.

Apparent has appointed Simon Pugh as chief media officer to lead and grow the full-service independent agency’s media offering in Australia and internationally. Pugh has held senior leadership positions across Publicis Groupe, Omnicom and Dentsu in Sydney, New York and San Francisco. Before joining Apparent, he helped establish the newly formed EssenceMediacom agency in Australia as chief client officer. He has worked with startups and international brands, including Square, Microsoft, Diageo, and The Coca-Cola Company.

Yahoo has appointed Maddie Basso to the newly created role of head of commercial for Australia. Before joining Yahoo, Basso worked for seven years at Captify and was most recently head of sales. Basso will lead a team of 15 and drive the company’s “overall commercial strategy across partners, resellers and operations in the Australian market”.  

Golin has elevated Rafidah Rashid to the newly created role of group managing director across its Singapore operations. Rashid will work across Golin’s agency brands, providing centralised leadership and strategic direction and continue to report to Darren Burns, president of Asia Pacific. Rashid commenced her public relations career in the corporate and financial sector before instigating her path at DeVries Global Singapore, which she has led since 2017. She was on Campaign Asia’s 40 Under 40 list in 2021. Most recently, she was appointed co-lead of the agencies’ Asia Pacific Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council.

Quotient Ventures (Tilt Brand Solutions & Vector Brand Solutions)has announced the resignation of T. Gangadhar, co-founder and group chief executive officer. Shriram Iyer and Rajiv Chatterjee. They are currently serving notice till June 30th. Gangadhar joined the Quotient in 2023 from Essence, where he was previously APAC CEO.  Iyer, co-founder and group chief creative officer at Quotient, has been with the company since its inception. Chatterjee is also a co-founder and the group chief growth officer. Read more about the story here.