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apptSanmina Corporation, a leading integrated manufacturing solutions company, announces its collaboration with Nokia for delivering a broad range of data center solutions that enable operators to harness the cloud. Sanmina will be a key delivery partner for Nokia's recently announced Data Center Services.

This strategic collaboration between Nokia and Sanmina will focus on the delivery of cost effective and scalable, multivendor cloud infrastructure solutions. Leveraging Sanmina's experience with IT infrastructure, hardware integration and global fulfilment for the telecommunications and cloud computing markets, Nokia will be able to rapidly deliver custom infrastructure solutions to improve operator time to market.

Sanmina will provide extensive services from worldwide delivery support to managing complex, multivendor supply chains. Its global footprint, ability to scale, and experience in staging and testing services partnered with Nokia's culture of innovation, technology, and thought leadership will allow customers to take delivery of industrialized, integrated, turn-key, state of the art data center solutions quickly, globally.

Beyond the delivery of data centers, Nokia and Sanmina will be working closely together to further expand the partnership to bring more value to Nokia's customers.

 

 

MediaTek and Orange announced a new collaboration to market IoT tailored offerings, embedding ready-to-use cellular connectivity to address the growing industrial demand for connected objects.

The 'IoT Booster Programme' aims to market a family of MediaTek chipsets with an Orange SIM Card or integrated with the Orange SIM Card in partner's modules. The offering will include the price of connectivity structured for IoT needs. This ready-to-use IoT offer allows professional developers to accelerate deployment of their connected objects onto the cellular network by removing the need to seek out complex arrangements for chipset and connectivity separately. The IoT Booster Programme is suitable for any large scale industrials looking to simplify their connectivity, as well as for start-ups seeking "out of the box" IoT connectivity for their product line. Cellular connectivity of these chipsets are designed for longevity, with up to 5 years included at a fixed price.

This collaboration by MediaTek and Orange aims to help electronic manufacturers to easily bring more connected objects to market. The programme is expected to be enriched progressively with value added services such as geo-location, device management, data management and other IoT innovative features.

Connected objects using this new offer will operate seamlessly across the Orange network and all of its roaming partners in more than 200 countries. Professional developers and object makers can now design and produce – at a large scale - low power, miniaturized and cost effective devices able to connect indoor or outdoor without post-sale subscription efforts.

 

 

Ferdinand-GutierrezHavas Media Group, the media arm of Havas, announced the appointment of Ferdinand Gutierrez as Chief Executive Officer for Havas Media Thailand.

The industry veteran joins Havas in a newly created role and will report directly to Vishnu Mohan, CEO of Havas Media Group Asia Pacific.

In addition to leading the Thai media team, Ferdinand has been tasked with developing Thailand operations into a digital hub for Indochina region. The appointment is yet another milestone in Havas’ attempt to build a strong foothold in the Indochina region. Last year Havas strengthened its presence in the region through the acquisition of premier integrated agency River Orchid. The acquisition saw Havas become the only global group with operations in all five countries of Indochina, strengthening its physical presence across nine out of 10 Southeast Asian economies. Ferdinand will also work closely with Havas Worldwide to deliver the Havas Village proposition in the Thai market.

An experienced business leader with experience of over 20 years, Ferdinand has been building and leading media/marketing companies across Southeast Asia. He has a proven track record with both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures, since he previously worked with international agencies including Universal McCann, MindShare, New Media, Ogilvy, and has experience in servicing top MNC clients like Unilever, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, and IBM in both traditional and digital spaces.

He was the founder of Sandbox Global, a social gaming company that built a user base of over 5.2 million registered users, and has been featured in Top Trending and Top Rated Apps on Facebook.

Most recently as the Chief Marketing Officer of Buzzebees Company Thailand, he was instrumental in leading CRM initiatives for major brands, such as Samsung, and was responsible for the expansion of the business into Laos.

 

 

Nalin-AdvaniRobotics startup Grey Orange Pte Ltd announced that Nalin Advani has joined the company as CEO, Asia Pacific & Japan.

Advani was most recently VP APAC at global visualization leader Barco NV, operating out of its Singapore office. In that role, he oversaw business in the Asia Pacific region through teams and offices in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and India - driving revenue, profitability and market share to new highs. GreyOrange, specializing in warehouse automation solutions, combines expertise in robotics and software engineering to solve operational inefficiencies in warehouses operated by third party logistics companies or by companies with their in-house logistics functions.

On January 27, GreyOrange announced a partnership agreement with Japanese e-commerce logistics provider GROUND Inc. Under the agreement, GreyOrange has made a strategic investment in GROUND Inc. and will be appointing Nalin Advani as one of its two representatives on GROUND Inc's board of directors.

The entry of GreyOrange into the Asia Pacific market is a milestone for the company as it continues to expand internationally. Founded in Gurgaon, India in 2011, the robotics startup now has presence in 9 states in India and has conquered 90% of its conveyor sortation market. In 2015, it began its international expansion plans by establishing its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore and has a presence in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

 

 

rovioRovio, the creator of Angry Birds, has partnered with Opera to bring Rovio’s family of games to the Opera Apps Club service.

Thanks to this partnership, Opera Apps Club subscribers will enjoy four of Rovio’s blockbuster titles, including Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Stella and Bad Piggies, and will also benefit from exclusive deals, promotions and bonuses. These offers are not available in the current free versions of the games and therefore are exclusive to Opera Apps Club subscribers.

Opera Apps Club is an innovative subscription-based, “Netflix-style” service for distributing mobile apps that continues to roll out globally this year. Users of Opera Apps Club get unlimited downloads and usage of top premium apps through a monthly or weekly subscription fee that is payable through the operator.

For users, especially those in emerging markets where credit- and debit-card penetration remains low, Opera Apps Club offers users a new and exciting way to access premium apps that would otherwise be out of reach on their mobile devices.

For the carrier, Opera Apps Club helps create additional revenue from apps and, more importantly, places the carrier back at the heart of app distribution for users. This is especially true for carriers that are experiencing high growth in smartphone usage.

With over six million active subscribers, Opera Apps Club provides an effective channel for app developers, through which they can get their apps discovered and monetized across the globe.

 

 

Exponential Interactive, a global providers of digital advertising solutions, announced the appointment of two key executives in line with the company’s commitment to strengthen its global leadership team:

Jessica Batt, currently Marketing Director APAC, will assume the position of Global Marketing Director and Amrit Pal Singh Bedi will serve as Head of Sales for India, in addition to his current role as Vice President of Global Operations.

Jessica-BattJessica will join the Global Leadership Team and work with the company’s country managers across its 22 locations around the globe, out of Exponential’s Melbourne office. In her new role, she will be responsible for developing and overseeing the trade and event marketing strategy, and initiatives for Exponential across the America’s, APAC and EMENA. Further responsibilities include driving market awareness of Exponential’s proposition and position as a high performing brand engagement as well as brand performance digital advertising company. As a strategic marketing professional with over 15 years' experience both in Australia and the UK, Jessica most recently worked with Adconion as Marketing Manager and Pacific Magazines as Trade Marketing Manager.

Amrit-Bedi
Amrit will map the direction and strategy for Exponential’s sales operations in India, and will continue to report to Dilip DaSilva, CEO of Exponential. Based in Exponential’s Noida office, Amrit joined the company in April 2012, and has since led and advanced its footprint and prominence around the world. Over the years, he has ensured global alignment across multiple delivery centers for various functions – from Advertising Operations, Media Planning and Business Intelligence, to Creative Designing and Solutions and Performance Optimisation. Taking on the mandate to grow Exponential’s presence in India is a natural step forward in Amrit’s association with the organisation.

 

 

InFocusAccelerating its push to aggressively grow its market presence worldwide, InFocus expanded its executive team by naming Brady O. Bruce as chief marketing officer.

InFocus innovates collaboration solutions that drive successful, visual teamwork in video walls, control rooms, large venues, conference rooms, classrooms and workstations throughout the world. Its end-to-end, system level, in-room and video calling solutions deliver fluid, convenient, dynamic ways to connect, share and collaborate from anywhere.

Bruce, previously vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for Jupiter Systems, which InFocus acquired in October, 2015, will have global responsibility for InFocus corporate communications, marketing programs, branding, product marketing, messaging and channel marketing.

InFocus has embarked on an ambitious growth trajectory beginning with Housley’s appointment as CEO in October 2015. The company is dramatically expanding its product range with recently announced and forthcoming company acquisitions, as well as through strategic partnerships, such as Foxconn. The company’s global reach is also expanding through a new focus on emerging markets such as India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Eastern Europe, as it simultaneously strengthens existing channel relationships in Europe and North America.

While at Jupiter Systems, Bruce developed and launched Canvas, Jupiter’s award-winning collaborative visualization suite for the enterprise. Prior to Jupiter, Bruce held leadership positions in UCC, mobile and media technology companies including Promptu, PRISMIQ, NightFire Software, Radius and VTEL Corp.

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Texas, Austin.

 

 

stuart-turner-and-seamus-higgins--468x312Havas Worldwide Australia announced that Tim Green will be stepping down from the role of ECD, a role he took up in December of 2014. His role will be replaced by joint ECD’s, Stuart Turner and Seamus Higgins who have been promoted to the roles.

The appointments are effective 1 March, 2016.

 

 

 

Viacom and Snapchat announced a matchless global partnership that capitalizes on and extends the unique expertise of both companies to creatively and authentically speak to millennial and post-millennial audiences.

The wide-ranging deal, anchored in both content production and advertising sales, will bring two high profile channels to Snapchat Discover, which will complement the already successful Comedy Central and MTV International Discover channels.

The agreement grants Viacom the right to sell Snapchat’s U.S. owned and operated advertising inventory, allowing Viacom to offer even more value to television advertisers who want to add Snapchat’s wildly popular premium video platform to the media mix. Viacom, on the other hand, agreed to provide Snapchat with expanded access to be able to produce Live Stories covering more of Viacom's tent pole events.

On the content side of the deal, Viacom will further invest in the creation of original premium video content specifically for Snapchat Discover, reinforcing Viacom’s innovative approach and dedication to globally delivering fans the content they want wherever they want to consume it. While MTV International and Comedy Central have previously been committed to creating original content on Discover, additional resources will now be put towards the launch of an MTV US Channel and a Comedy Central International channel on the platform. MTV’s new Snapchat Discover channel will feature a wide range of content created exclusively for the platform and updated daily. At launch, this includes MTV News articles and video with design and art direction unique to Snapchat, exclusive celebrity interviews, and more. MTV is also developing additional Snapchat-native content, including brand-new original series and reinvented MTV fan-favorite franchises for the platform. More details on original programming will be announced at a later date.


Comedy Central launched internationally on Snapchat Discover on February 10, 2016, delivering always funny content to fans globally. The new international channel will serve Snapchat users daily doses of comedy, from curated “WTF News” articles and exclusive videos with their favorite comedians to upcoming original series set to debut on Snapchat Discover in the coming year.

Since its U.S. launch in January 2015, the Comedy Central channel on Snapchat Discover has become a vibrant pipeline for Comedy Central to develop fresh comedic voices and original content. It is one of the most popular brands on the platform.

Another key element of the Viacom/Snapchat partnership will leverage Snapchat’s Live Stories, which are curated collections of user-submitted content covering major events and places around the world. Through the partnership, Snapchat will have unique access to cover Viacom’s one-of-a-kind, tent pole events, such as MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs), BET Experience, and MTV’s EMAs.

The deal grew organically out of a dynamic Viacom/Snapchat relationship, including many custom advertising campaigns created by in-house creative agency Viacom Velocity that ran in Snapchat Discover, as well as “break-the-internet” level of fan engagement for Viacom events covered by Snapchat Live Stories and Snapchat Discover channels launched a year ago.

 

 

Tan-Kwang-MengK2, an award-winning business application software company, announced that it has appointed Mr. Tan Kwang Meng (KM) as the Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific. His appointment is a testament to the company’s continuous growth and commitment to the region as a key market in its global expansion strategy.

In his new role at K2, KM will be responsible for the health and expansion of the K2 business across Asia Pacific by ensuring the implementation of the company’s strategies to grow revenue, increase market share and improve customer satisfaction for the solutions that K2 provides. With over 20 years of experience in the high tech sector, KM brings with him deep familiarity within the Asia Pacific business partner network, and invaluable insights into strategic planning and business management.

Prior to this role, KM was the Area Vice President and General Manager at CA Technologies in China. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in Computer Science from Monash University and began his career at Hewlett-Packard as a systems engineer. Over the course of his career, KM has also held various leadership, general management and sales positions at Singapore Computer Systems, Autodesk and Sun Microsystems.

 

 

Hsuan-Tien-LinArtificial intelligence company, Appier, welcomed its first Chief Data Scientist, Dr. Hsuan-Tien Lin.

Dr. Lin joins the company from National Taiwan University, where he served as Associate Professor of Computer Science. He will lead Appier's artificial intelligence research and development team, focusing on deepening Appier's artificial intelligence technology and consolidating its leadership position in Asia and cross screen.

Dr. Lin is a beloved figure in Asia's artificial intelligence community. Between 2010 and 2013, he co-led his university's team to victory in machine learning competition KDDCup six times, and his introductory machine learning textbook Learning from Data (which he co-authored) is a bestseller on Amazon.

Online, Dr. Lin's teachings on machine learning, hosted on popular open learning platform Coursera, have been viewed millions of times. His research interests include machine learning, studies on new learning problems, and improvements on learning algorithms.

"In the future, interaction between humanity and artificial intelligence will be as natural as breathing," said Dr. Lin. "And yet AI isn't merely a distant vision--it's already a part of life today. From medicine to business strategy to advertising, AI has the potential to resolve some of the business world's most complex issues. I'm looking forward to joining the growing ranks of AI scientists leaping from theory to practice to confront some of the real world's problems." Dr. Lin received his PhD and MS in computer science from the California Institute of Technology, and served as a long time consultant before joining Appier formally.

 

 

kingsleyVuclip, a PCCW company and the leading premium video on demand (VOD) service, has appointed Mr. Kingsley Warner General Manager Malaysia.

Warner, based in Kuala Lumpur, has been with the company for more than two years as Head of Content for Southeast Asia and assumes this additional responsibility with immediate effect. The appointment comes ahead of Vuclip’s impending Malaysia launch of ‘Viu’, its Over-The-Top (OTT) video streaming service.

As Head of Viu in Malaysia, Warner will oversee the overall operations and strategic direction of the Viu brand, driving consumer adoption, engagement and commercialisation through various strategic partnerships, marketing channels and advertisers. He will tap into his previous experience with launching consumer entertainment brands in SEA, Malaysia and Australia.

In Malaysia, Warner previously worked as a media executive with the Astro Malaysia Group, where he was Head of Maxis IPTV and Commercial Director for Digital Five, the digital arm of Astro Pay-TV Malaysia. Prior to Malaysia, he worked for Fox Sports as Commercial Head of Digital and in other senior Newscorp roles at News Digital Media and FOXTEL.

 

Asiya-BakhtHavas, one of the largest global communications group, has announced the promotion of Asiya Bakht to the group’s Director of Marketing & Communications for Asia Pacific, as part of its strategy to adopt a Havas Village model.

Havas Village is a client centric organization that brings all disciplines and teams in the agency under one roof – creative, media and digital - and is the foundation of group’s collaborative culture. The Village mode aims to simplify the agency’s offering for clients by aligning resources, production, analytics and insights across divisions, thus driving greater efficiency and effectiveness. The move follows the consolidation of marketing communications function in other key markets in Asia Pacific such as Australia, China, India and the Philippines.

In her newly defined role, Asiya will be responsible for driving marketing and communications for all creative, media and specialist brands of Havas Asia, which include the flagship brands Havas Worldwide and Havas Media.

As Director of Marketing & Communications for Havas Asia Pacific, Asiya will drive visibility and awareness of Havas in the region and report to Southeast Asia CEO Levent Guenes.

She has served the network since 2010 and was, until recently, responsible for all marketing and communication duties at Havas Media APAC - the media arm of Havas.

Prior to joining Havas, Asiya has spent 12 years as a journalist starting her career as a broadcast journalist with ANI- Reuters India and working with trade publications including Television Asia and Campaign Asia.

 

Guy-newTODAY Ogilvy & Mather Myanmar has named industry veteran Guy Winston as Executive Creative Director to develop and lead creative standards in the country.

Winston has worked with an array of top agencies and brands throughout his career, which includes vast experience throughout Asia. Previously, he was Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Hong Kong where he was responsible for the P&G business across Greater China and was Regional Creative Director on Pampers.  Winston has also worked as Regional Creative Director for JWT based out of Bangkok where he led Ford’s creative product across Asia Pacific and Africa.  
Throughout his career Winston has led creative teams for major agencies in China, Australia, New York and the UK, as well as a stint with JWT in Pakistan.  His work has garnered accolades across mediums. Highlights include multiple recognitions from Cannes Lions, Clio Awards and D&AD Awards, to name a few.

At Today O&M Myanmar, Guy will lead a strong local team working across both international and local clients including Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle, MPT and E-lan.  He will also oversee the digital and social content development for the agency.

TODAY Ogilvy & Mather is Myanmar’s first and preeminent international agency and part of one of the world’s leading communications agency networks with a client portfolio comprising a range of international, regional and local clients. Based in Yangon, Myanmar, and founded in 2012 after international sanctions were lifted, the company provides a range of marketing communications services including advertising, public relations, social, and digital.


Lawrence-PokSealite, the world's fastest growing manufacturer of marine aids to navigation, announced the appointment of Mr. Lawrence Pok as business development manager for the Asia region.

Sealite is headquartered in Australia, with manufacturing and office locations in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In his new role at Sealite, Mr. Lawrence Pok will be responsible for new business development and expansion in a number of key areas, with a special focus on expanding relationships with new and existing customers throughout Asia. He holds a Masters in Electrical Science, and Bachelor in Electronics Engineering and will report to Mr. Michael Walker Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Sealite.

Mr. Pok has more than 20 years of experience working with technical systems and in sales leadership roles, with previous experience in the Aids to Navigation Industry (AtoN).