November 2022
National Research Group (NRG), recognized as an insights leader at the edge of technology, content, and culture, announced that Sushma Panchawati, a veteran insights strategist and emerging markets specialist, has been appointed Senior Vice President, Content & Strategy. She will oversee the firm’s presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. NRG is part of Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing.
In her new role, Panchawati will work closely with both existing and new clients across the streaming, television, and theatrical landscapes, leading brand health, concept evaluation, messaging and positioning, content testing, and creative material testing.
Panchawati has more than 15 years of experience working in product and marketing strategy. Most recently, she was part of the founding team at Edvanza, a career advancement partner for young professionals. There, she led the design and delivery of the company’s MVP product proposition, as well as the foundational business and marketing strategy, driving growth in the UK, Africa, and India. Before that, Panchawati led the APAC region for The Sound, a brand strategy and product innovation agency. She has led strategy and research efforts across APAC, EU, Africa, and South America working with brands like Google, Pinterest, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple on their brand launch campaigns, marketing and product strategies, and innovation pipelines.
Panchawati earned her undergraduate degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University and her MBA from MICA in India. She is a regular speaker at global conferences like the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), highlighting her experience working across a diverse set of markets and methodologies. She will be based in Singapore.
Dentsu Group Inc. announced a globally diverse and integrated leadership team to drive its global business forward from FY2023. The global leadership team will ensure further integration of the Group’s diverse capabilities to deliver top line growth for clients, while allowing Dentsu to realize sustainable enhancement of corporate value.
The creation of a new global management structure follows Dentsu’s announced intention to integrate Dentsu International and Dentsu Japan Network into a single Dentsu organization around the world from January 1, 2023 and will strengthen the voice of the client in all strategy discussions. The simplified structure will allow the business to foster agile decision-making, strategic focus and clarity across the group whilst driving operational excellence across all functions.
The Group Management Team is headed by President & CEO Hiroshi Igarashi and consists of 36 globally diverse Group Management members, including the 21-person Group Executive Management with executive responsibility. The team directly governs the four business regions worldwide.
Appointment of 21 Group Executive Management (effective January 1, 2023)
| Position | Name | Current position |
| President & CEO, Dentsu Group Inc. | Hiroshi Igarashi | President & CEO, Dentsu Group Inc. |
| Executive Vice President & Chief Governance Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Arinobu Soga | Executive Vice President (CFO), Dentsu Group Inc. |
| Executive Vice President & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Haruhiko Hirate | Executive Vice President (CCAO), Dentsu Group Inc. |
| Chief Financial Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Nick Priday | Executive Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. and CFO, Dentsu International Limited |
| Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Integration Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Soichi Takahashi | Executive Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. |
| Chief HR Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Miho Tanimoto | Japan HR Leader, Google Japan |
| Chief Culture Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Jean Lin | Executive Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. |
| Chief Communications Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Jeremy Miller | Global Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, Dentsu International Limited |
| Chief Information Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Dominic Shine | Chief Technology Officer, Dentsu International Limited |
| General Counsel, Dentsu Group Inc. | Alison Zoellner | General Counsel, Dentsu International Limited |
| Chief Integrated Solutions Officer, dentsu | Masaya Nakamura | Executive Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. and CEO, Dentsu International Global Solutions |
| CEO, Business Transformation, dentsu | Takeshi Sano | Executive Officer, Dentsu Japan Network |
| CEO, dentsu Americas & Chief Global Client Officer, dentsu | Jacki Kelley | CEO, Dentsu International Americas |
| CEO, dentsu Japan | Norihiro Kuretani | Executive Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. and President & CEO, Dentsu Japan Network |
| CEO, dentsu EMEA | Giulio Malegori | CEO, Dentsu International EMEA |
| CEO, dentsu APAC | Rob Gilby | CEO, Dentsu International APAC |
| CEO, CXM, International markets, dentsu | Michael Komasinski | Global CEO, Merkle/CXM, Dentsu International Limited |
| CEO, Media, International markets, dentsu | Peter Huijboom | Global CEO, Media & Global Clients, Dentsu International Limited |
| Global Chief Creative Officer, dentsu. (excluding Japan) | Fred Levron | Global Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu International Limited |
| Chief Operating Officer, dentsu Japan | Yoshimasa Watahiki | Executive Officer, Assistant to President, Dentsu Japan Network |
| Chief Operating Officer, International markets, dentsu | Nnenna Ilomechina | Global Chief Operating Officer, Dentsu International Limited |
As of January 1, 2023, Hiroshi Igarashi and Arinobu Soga will remain as Representative Directors, and Nick Priday and Norihiro Kuretani will remain as Directors.
(2) Appointment of 15 Group Management (effective January 1, 2023)
| Strategy Planning & Business Area | Corporate Area | ||
| Position | Name | Position | Name |
| Chief of Staff, Dentsu Group Inc. | Yoshiki Ishihara | Head of Internal Audit, Dentsu Group Inc. | Nobuo Uehara |
| Deputy Chief Strategy Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Yoshinobu Ise | Deputy Chief HR Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Jun Shibata |
| Deputy Chief Integration Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | So Aoki | Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Toshiyuki Hirasawa |
| Deputy Chief Integration Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. | Tom Higgins | Head of Corporate Secretary & Deputy General Counsel, Dentsu Group Inc. | Tadashi Nagae |
| Deputy Chief of Staff, Dentsu Group Inc. | Manus Wheeler | Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, dentsu Japan | Nobutaka Hayashi |
| Deputy Chief of Staff, Dentsu Group Inc. | Noritaka Omi | Chief Financial Officer, dentsu Japan | Hiroshi Chino |
| CEO, Creative, dentsu Japan | Yasuharu Sasaki | Chief Sustainability Officer, dentsu Japan | Yuko Kitakaze |
| Chief Sustainability Officer, International markets, dentsu | Anna Lungley |
Magnolia, an industry-leading digital experience platform (DXP), has opened its new office in Sydney, Australia. The latest expansion comes as Magnolia looks to increase its presence in the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) market.
Magnolia already has an established presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with seven offices in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Bangkok, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Now they look to offer their visionary content management and digital experience technology to companies in the Australia and New Zealand region.
The new office coincides with recent Magnolia hire, an ex-Sitecore veteran, James Hirka, who is now the VP of Digital Experience for Magnolia APAC and GM for ANZ.
ADA appoints Anthony Chan as Head of Growth to lead and build its Marketing Technology (MarTech) Sales team across the APAC region, as part of the organization’s aim to be the leader in the Marketing Technology enablement space.
Anthony’s appointment solidifies the suite of Digital Marketing solutions that ADA wants brands to benefit from, especially in such critical times where many marketers are navigating the transition from AdTech to MarTech. He and his team will see to ADA’s sales transformation and help deliver on the organization’s ambitious growth plans to strengthen its footprint as the largest independent analytics, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) business in the region.
Armed with over 25 years Marketing Technology Sales & Partnership Management experience with Microsoft, Sitecore and Braze, Anthony was most recently Vice President, Enterprise Sales Leader of Merkle APAC Region. Throughout his globetrotting career, Anthony has overseen exponential growths across multiple businesses, leading his Sales teams to millions in contract value closure.
Award-winning integrated communications agency Mutant has promoted Abraham Christopher and Bethany Bloch to Director and Managing Editor, respectively.
As Director, Abraham will lead the public relations and social media teams. Focusing on reputation and issues management, he will oversee crisis communications, media training and integrated communications. During his time as a Senior Manager, Abraham helped build Mutant’s social media offering, and led new business efforts, winning key clients, including Shopee, Logitech, Bumble, Subway, Great Eastern Women’s Run and National Geographic, amongst others.
Bethany steps into the role of Managing Editor and will oversee the agency’s key editorial accounts as she drives new business efforts for the fast-growing content team by helping clients develop content strategies for marketing, sales enablement and thought leadership that support broader business goals. In her previous role as Senior Editor, Bethany helped brands across industries develop rich content strategies that emphasize storytelling and produce real business results. She also spearheaded Peering into Our Future, Mutant’s inaugural corporate social responsibility campaign about ocean conservation.
Mutant is also gearing up to expand Mutant Branding, a specialized offering for brand strategies and creative offerings that complement the agency’s award-winning PR and content work. Under the leadership of Rebecca Lewis, Brand Strategy Director, the service will focus on end-to-end branding strategies and design offerings for brands regionally. Rebecca will be supported by a team of consultants and designers across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
October 2022
Infor, the industry cloud company, announced the appointment of Terry Smagh as senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan.
Based in Singapore, Smagh will be responsible for growing Infor’s business and driving customer success across key markets in the region, including Australia and New Zealand, Greater China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Korea.
Smagh brings a deep industry expertise in SaaS and data analytics to his role at Infor and has a proven track record in helping customers transform and grow their businesses across the region. He joins Infor following senior leadership roles at BlackLine, IBM, and Qlik, where he played an instrumental role in driving revenue growth opportunities and profitability.
A Singaporean at heart, Smagh also has an extensive understanding of local and regional market nuances and growth opportunities, having worked in regional roles for most of his career.
Smagh will be responsible for spearheading growth for Infor across a broad range of sectors in APJ, including industrial manufacturing, food and beverage, automotive, high tech, distribution and logistics.
Yahoo announced key appointments to its team in APAC to support the accelerated growth of its ad tech business in the region.
Matt Farrington joins Yahoo as APAC Head of Partnerships & Investment. Sandra Lin comes on board as the new APAC Head of DSP Strategy. Kenneth Koh joins as Head of DSP SEA. The latest appointments come amidst growing demand for Yahoo’s ad tech product solutions and services in APAC as brands strengthen their digital marketing strategies with Yahoo’s pioneering omnichannel offering.
Matt Farrington, APAC Head of Partnerships & Investment, will drive Yahoo’s investment strategy in the region and oversee commercial trading relationships with agencies and clients. He will lead the development and delivery of Yahoo’s trading deal models in APAC, generating value for agencies and clients across Yahoo’s best-in-class unified ad tech stack and omnichannel platforms including iconic brands like Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Mail. Matt has previously held leadership roles in global media groups and major agencies within Omnicom and GroupM.
Sandra Lin, APAC Head of DSP Strategy, will oversee the strategy for Yahoo’s ad platforms and unified ad tech stack, focusing on growing product adoption across the region. She will lead regional multi-discipline initiatives across Product, Positioning, and Partnerships. Sandra was formerly leading Programmatic initiatives at Google, where she played a key role in driving market expansion and emerging channel adoption.
Kenneth Koh, Head of DSP SEA, will lead the Demand-Side Platform (DSP) team for SEA. His remit will include managing Yahoo’s growing Platform Specialist team that helps partners in Singapore and SEA realise their full potential through Yahoo’s buying solutions powered by its omnichannel, unified ad tech stack. Kenneth was previously leading Platforms and Search teams at Google for SEA.
Terence Lim joins as the Business Lead for SEA, as Yahoo bolsters its team in the region to support clients and partners. He will work closely with partners and agencies to help brands future-proof their brands and marketing strategies and achieve their business goals through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack.
Natalie Phang joins as Data and Insights Strategist, SEA, where she will leverage her data strategy experience built across APAC and the EU, to help Yahoo’s agency and brand clients in SEA maximise their marketing investment for the cookieless world.
Xenith Infrastructure Group (XenithIG), a critical network infrastructure provider serving hyperscalers, data center operators, carriers, and enterprise clients throughout the Asia Pacific, announced the appointment of Luke Mackinnon as Chief Operating Officer.
Luke will be leading the strategy and execution of XenithIG’s operations while working closely with the leadership team to accelerate the company’s growth.
He has over 25 years of executive management experience in the hyperscale cloud, telecoms, and media industries in APAC. Most recently, Luke was the APAC Business Operations Leader for Data Centre Delivery at Amazon Web Services and President Director of PT Amazon Data Services Indonesia. He has vast experience in complex, large-scale digital infrastructure projects, notably in his previous roles as COO, CTO, and Group General Manager of Architecture, Innovation & Strategy of Vocus Group Limited (previously known as Vocus Communications).
Luke’s experience from other senior executive management roles also positions him well to bolster XenithIG’s organic and inorganic growth strategy. As Managing Director of 24Seven3Six5 Pty Ltd, Luke supported some of Australia’s most significant private equity and infrastructure funds in their M&A activity. He also understands the journey from start-up to scale, having held founding roles in a number of successful start-ups like Planet Netcom, Fetch TV, and Vocus Communications.
Crimtan, the global experts in intelligent lifecycle marketing for programmatic, announced the appointment of Andy Houstoun as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
As CCO, Houstoun will establish a new Commercial Services Division to focus on better supporting existing clients, as well as growing Crimtan’s creative and analytical functions.
Houstoun has more than 20 years’ experience in programmatic and digital, most recently as Group Operations Director at Crimtan, and previously as CCO of Larsson & Jennings, the Swiss made watch brand. Prior to this he worked at Venda, the world’s largest on-demand e-commerce provider, which was acquired by Oracle, where he launched and optimized online propositions for clients including Jimmy Choo, TK Maxx and Urban Outfitters. Prior to this, he was part of the founding team of Tesco.com.
Straive (former SPi Global), a leader in delivering technology-driven solutions for Content, EdTech, and Data to leading global organizations, has appointed Josh Blair as its Non-Executive Chairman.
Josh is the CEO and Co-Founder of EdTech innovator Impro.AI. Additionally, he is the Vice Chair at TELUS International, the Governance Chair at Neighbourly Pharmacies, and a partner at Esplanade Ventures. Prior to 2020, Josh enjoyed 25 years working at TELUS Corporation, most recently as Group President overseeing TELUS International, TELUS Health, TELUS Agriculture, TELUS Business Solutions, and TELUS Ventures.
VMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software, announced the appointment of Barry Chen as Vice President and General Manager of Greater China, leading VMware’s business development across mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan.
Barry is a VMware veteran, having spent more than ten years with the Company as the General Manager of VMware Taiwan. His leadership brought VMware Taiwan to be regarded in the industry as one of the world’s top IT innovators with multifold growth and consistently excellent performance results. A professional IT leader for over 25 years, Barry has extensive IT industry experience in both the enterprise and consumer markets. With deep industry insights, he is good at providing professional advice and helping on the digital transformation of local enterprises.
Prior to joining VMware, Barry served multiple years at leading network and software companies in various senior leadership roles across East and Central China, Taiwan, and Korea. He has also led Greater China and Asia for channels and developer alliances and services throughout his career. Barry has held additional positions that include Vice Chairman of the Taiwan Linux Consortium and is currently Director of the Cloud Computing and IoT Association in Taiwan.
Barry holds a master’s degree of Computer Science from Texas A&M University and has completed an Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School.
