Amobee, the company defining digital marketing, has announced the appointment of Carl Nawagamuwa as VP, APAC – the second strategic addition to the region’s leadership team on the heels of Liam Walsh’s appointment as Managing Director of ANZ operations.

Carl_NawagamuwaCarl will be responsible for developing and expanding partnerships in Southeast Asia to further drive adoption of Amobee’s technology-driven solutions, including Amobee Brand Intelligence, which enables marketers to efficiently activate media by leveraging proprietary data and insights to deliver powerful results.

Liam_WalshPrior to joining Amobee, Carl spent nearly a decade as the Head of UK Digital Trading at MEC before his most recent role as Managing Director at Interim Xaxis China, whilst working as Director of Xaxis TV APAC.

Amobee further strengthened its APAC leadership team with two other senior appointments: former Head of Social Investment at Society, Ian Laurie, as Amobee’s ANZ team Head of Social; and most recently former Facebook and Kenshoo Chief, Liam Walsh, as Managing Director of ANZ operations.




Sanjay1Since announcing its plan to separate into two publicly traded companies, Symantec Corp. reached another important milestone by appointing Sanjay Rohatgi as Senior Vice President, Sales, APJ, Symantec.

Based in Singapore, Rohatgi will be responsible for growing the company's presence and market position across the region, in addition to leading business operations and business development. He takes over from Adrian Jones who has been promoted to executive vice president for worldwide sales for Symantec. Prior to his appointment as the senior vice president for Symantec in APJ, Rohatgi was vice president Sales for Symantec in India, responsible for leading the business and driving growth across the enterprise security and information management businesses.

An industry veteran, Rohatgi has worked in the Information Communication Technology industry for more than 24 years in various roles across multiple geographies. He joined Symantec after an illustrious career at Cisco where, most recently, he held the position of Managing Director, Service Provider for India and SAARC. In this capacity, Rohatgi was responsible for leading Cisco's business with telecom service providers and cable operators across the region. Under his leadership, Cisco was recognised for local innovation and leveraging India based R&D to create market specific solutions. At Cisco, Rohatgi has also been the Managing Director for Indonesia for two years and prior to this, led the Service Provider group for Asia based out of Singapore. Before joining Cisco, Rohatgi worked with Nortel Networks in Hong Kong, Telstra and BHP Billiton in Australia, and British Telecom in the UK.

Rohatgi holds an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Opto-Electronic from Strathclyde University, U.K. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics & Telecommunications from India.

 



gOMD Sydney appointed Gideon Hornung to the position of Head of Strategy, McDonalds.

Gideon joins OMD from his role as Strategic Lead at Mindshare. With over 10 years’ experience in the industry, he has led the strategic product for a number of clients in Australia, including NAB, GE, Carlton & United Brewery and Danone.

Gideon brings with him a deep understanding of consumers and retail, having previously worked 5 years client side across marketing and insights at organisations such as Coles.

This appointment serves as a further reinforcement of OMD’s elevated strategic offering, as seen with the recent hire of Mat Rawnsley from The Monkeys and Dan Bye from M&C Saatchi. Gideon will report to Gavin Gibson, effective immediately.

 



Mary_BuenaventuraOmnicom Media Group has announced a change in leadership in one of their rapidly growing markets in Asia Pacific – The Philippines. Nicanor Gabunada Jr. (Nic), has stepped down from his position as Omnicom Media Group’s current CEO, to pursue another opportunity in the industry, and will be replaced by Mary Buenaventura effective May 1.

In her new role, Mary is charged with the leadership of all Omnicom Media Group assets in Philippines, working alongside the senior management team and leads for OMD, PHD and M2M.

She will report to Jasmin Sohrabji, CEO for Omnicom Media Group, SEA and India.

Mary joins Omnicom Media Group from Y&R Philippines, where she held the post of CEO/President for the last 13 years. She set-up Y&R Philippines’ in-house integrated marketing communications capabilities, the first for Y&R’s Asian network and Wunderman – WPP’s digital and CRM agency. She also spearheaded agency service innovations, like digital and interactive solutions, CRM, shopper marketing, activation to name a few.

 



chris1Symantec Corp. reached an important milestone for its planned spinout of Veritas Technologies Corporation by promoting Chris Lin as the new sales leader to lead and drive growth across its information management business and support customers and partners in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ).

In this role, Lin is leading a high performance team to accelerate the company's growth, strategic presence and market position across the region, in addition to managing business operations and business development.

Prior to his appointment as the APJ sales leader for Veritas, Lin was Symantec's vice president for the Greater China Region, responsible for leading the business and driving growth across both its information management and enterprise security business in mainland China , Hong Kong and Taiwan.

A seasoned IT industry veteran with over 25 years' of experience, Lin has held several senior management roles with multinational technology firms and has a deep knowledge of leading large scale sales operations and expertise in building partner ecosystems to drive business efficiencies. Prior to joining Symantec, Lin was the General Manager for Microsoft's Enterprise & Partner Group, responsible for the overall enterprise sales business in China.

He has also held the position of President of the Greater China Region for Sun Microsystems and Senior Vice President at Opnext Inc., responsible for global sales and marketing operations. Prior to this, Lin served as the Chief Operating Officer for China and Vice President of the Wireless Networks Group at Lucent Technologies.

Lin holds a Master of Science from Columbia University, New York, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

 



Robin-SaitzBrainshark, Inc., a software as a service (SaaS) company that delivers content-driven sales enablement solutions, announced the appointment of marketing veteran Robin Saitz as chief marketing officer.

With a proven track record of building high-performance teams and brands, Saitz will spearhead the company's marketing strategy, ranging from messaging and positioning, to demand generation and awareness programs.

Prior to Brainshark, Saitz had a successful 25-year career with PTC, where she was most recently senior vice president of global marketing and operations and led the company's lead-to-revenue initiative. During her tenure, she helped the company grow from $25 million to $1.3 billion in revenue, while leading all aspects of marketing, including product and solutions marketing, corporate branding, social and content marketing, demand generation, regional and channel marketing, and global events.

Previously, Saitz worked as a member of the technical staff at both GTE and Raytheon. She earned a Master of Science degree in engineering management from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and computers from Trinity College-Hartford.

 



Digital Realty Trust, the leading global provider of data center and colocation solutions, announced the appointments of a new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

jarrettJarrett Appleby has been named Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he will be responsible for the following teams: Property and Technical Operations, Design and Construction, EMEA and APAC Operations, Product Management, and Corporate Strategy.

Mr. Appleby has deep experience in the data center business, having previously served as Chief Operating Officer at CoreSite Realty and Chief Marketing Officer at Equinix. He was the first COO at CoreSite, where he played a key role in overseeing significant and sustained FFO growth, while leading product development and customer experience strategies. He was also instrumental in developing Equinix's go-to-market strategy.

Mr. Appleby currently serves as founder and CEO of the Appleby Group, an independent consultancy firm that advises leading private equity and technology companies. He joined on April 20, 2015 and is based at Digital Realty's Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco, CA, reporting directly to Mr. Stein.

Andrew Power takes on the Chief Financial Officer position, which has been held by Mr. Stein since 2004. He will be responsible for the company's financial functions and will lead financial reporting, capital markets, tax, investor relations and financial planning and analysis.

Mr. Power joins Digital Realty following a successful 13-year career in investment banking. He currently serves as Managing Director of the Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he is responsible for relationships with over 40 public and private companies, including Digital Realty.

Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mr. Power was employed by Citigroup, where he held similar positions. During his career, he managed the execution of public and private capital raises in excess of $30 billion, including the largest REIT IPO to date, and more than $19 billion of M&A transactions.

Mr. Power was part of the lead underwriting team that advised Digital Realty on its initial public offering in 2004, and has served as a lead manager on nearly every subsequent public capital raise. He will join Digital Realty shortly upon completion of his remaining obligations at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and will report directly to Mr. Stein based at Digital Realty's Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco.

 



NCR Corporation, a global leader in consumer transaction technologies, announced two new senior sales executive appointments to drive its financial services business growth in Southeast Asia and Singapore.

yiannoYiannos Papadopoulos, current AMEA channel vice president, will take up a new role as vice president for financial services, sales in Southeast Asia, reporting to Joao Perez, senior vice president, global sales for financial services. While, Midge Pan is appointed managing director for financial services in Singapore and he will report to Yiannos.

In his new role, Yiannos will be based in Singapore and be responsible for driving NCR’s strategy to leverage new growth opportunities for software and services business in the financial industry in the Southeast Asia region. During his 16 years with NCR, Yiannos has held senior leadership roles of increasing responsibilities, including region leader for the retail business in the Middle East, general manager for NCR South Africa, channels managing director for Middle East and most recently managing the channel financial business globally.

Midge_PanAs managing director of financial services in Singapore, Midge will continue to deliver values to NCR’s strategic customers in the market through NCR’s innovative technology. He joins NCR with over a decade of solid direct and channel sales background in the information technology industry. He most recently worked as APAC Alliance Director at Eaton Corporation and previously took up various sales positions in Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Midge holds a bachelor of business degree in business from Monash University.

 



extreme_logoExtreme Networks, Inc., a leader in high performance networking, announced that it has appointed Board Chairman Ed Meyercord as its President and Chief Executive Officer effective April 19, 2015. Mr. Meyercord will be replacing Chuck Berger, who has resigned from his position and from the Board of Directors of Extreme Networks effective April 19, 2015.

Having served on the Extreme Networks' board for over five years as an independent director, Mr. Meyercord brings a deep knowledge of the company and commitment to Extreme customers and employees. He has an outstanding record of accomplishment of driving customer focused cultures and taking market share from large incumbents in highly competitive industries. He will remain active supporting the leadership team at Critical Alert Systems, a high growth healthcare IT company, where he is a significant investor. Since Extreme Networks remains committed to the separation of the Chair of the Board and CEO roles at the company, the Board will seek to name a new Chair in due course.

 



russelllaiHavas Media Singapore announced the appointment of Russell Lai as Executive Director.

In his new role, Russell will be responsible for leading integrated media solutions, strategic client management and new business. He will report in to Jacqui Lim, Managing Director and Chief Client Officer of Havas Media Singapore.

Russell joins the agency with 15 years of media planning and client management experience, spanning international and local agencies in Singapore and Hong Kong. Most recently with IPG Mediabrands, he has previously worked with ZenithOptimedia, OMD, PHD and Briq.

His experience spans categories FMCG, Financial Services, Luxury Brands, Insurance and Government agencies locally and some of the brands he has worked on includes HP, Standard Chartered Bank, NTUC Income, Ministry of Health, LVMH, Reckitt Benckiser, Sports Singapore and Ministry of Home Affairs.

 



OMD has appointed Stephen Li to lead the Asia Pacific region as its CEO. Li will replace Steve Blakeman, OMD’s current regional CEO who will be relocating to OMD in London in a senior, global role. Li’s appointment will be effective from October 2015.

Stephen_LiLi will be joining OMD from MEC where he is currently the regional CEO for Asia Pacific. He has over two decades of experience in advertising, media and marketing communications. After holding senior roles with Batey and Lowe, and a role heading up WPP’s team HSBC in the region, Li moved to the media side of the business with MEC in 2005, where he quickly established a reputation of delivering profitability, efficiency and building a culture of positive change.

Li will be based in OMD’s regional headquarters in Singapore and report to Cheuk Chiang, CEO Asia Pacific, Omnicom Media Group and Mainardo de Nardis, CEO Worldwide, OMD.

 



Unisys Corporation announced Neil Gissler as the company’s new Senior Vice President, Services.

Gissler will lead an integrated global services delivery organization, providing deep expertise in areas such as IT strategy, enterprise architecture, end-user services, application services, and cloud and infrastructure services. As part of his responsibilities, Gissler's organization will manage Unisys' worldwide network of client service centers, software development centers and data centers. Gissler will report directly to Peter Altabef, president and CEO of Unisys.

Prior to joining Unisys, Gissler spent 28 years with Accenture, previously serving as the Global Technology Consulting lead, driving sales, solution architecting and delivery of all client IT strategy, enterprise architecture, infrastructure and security consulting services. Prior to this role, Gissler served as the NA Technology Growth Platform lead, supporting sales, and leading solution architecting and delivery of all NA-based client IT and technology services, including IT strategy, enterprise architecture, application services, infrastructure services and security services.

 



Alex-PaceyPHD has announced two new appointments in Alex Pacey, Head of Implementation Planning and Joel Pearson, Head of Digital Innovation.

The roles have been created to drive continued focus on product excellence ensuring PHD delivers the very best work for all clients.

Former General Manager at Ikon Communications, Pacey will be responsible for the implementation output of over 40 employees at PHD. He will be using his 16 years’ experience in the media industry to translate PHD’s market leading commutations strategies into best in class execution.

Joel-Pearson1Returning from 2 years in London in the PHD Global Strategy Unit, Pearson will be elevating the digital output of the agency; driving an innovation agenda through the business. During his time in London, Joel was awarded a slew of awards including multiple Cannes Lions, 3 Festival of Media wins and Grand Prix at The Internationalists; these were awarded for some outstanding work for Dove campaigns and Unilever’s master-brand. He will be bringing this wealth of experience to Australia.

Pacey and Pearson will work alongside one another and the other PHD Community Heads to enhance the capabilities for PHD’s offering and grow new business development. Both new hires are of immediate effect and will report into Managing Director, Toby Hack. The appointments comes on the heels of a successful year for PHD Australia. In 2014, the agency significantly expanded the business with 21 new business wins including Bayer, Priceline, Infiniti and amaysim. It is this rapid growth, which has triggered the need for a number of new roles across the agency.

 



BaochiBaochi Nguyen, a data-driven marketing executive and new media pioneer, has been appointed as vice president of marketing at Krux, a next generation data management platform (DMP) that helps marketers, publishers, and agencies drive revenue by delivering smarter content, commerce and marketing experiences in real time.

Ms. Nguyen brings nearly two decades of experience managing marketing strategies for technology companies to the job. In her new role at Krux, she leads the company's digital marketing strategy, including global online branding, advertising, content, public relations, social media and analyst relations.

Prior to joining Krux, Ms. Nguyen was CEO and founder of Social Canny, a digital marketing and social strategy agency, serving CEOs and late-stage start-ups in technology. Previously, she held senior positions at RingCentral, Boingo Wireless and Alcatel. Her work has earned recognition from publications including Mashable, Entrepreneur magazine and FoxNews Business. She is a frequent speaker at industry events and currently serves as an advisory board member for Scoop.it, a social content curation platform. Ms. Nguyen received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Stanford University where she was a Division I and Arthur Ashe Scholar athlete.

 



amyMindjet, the global leader in SaaS solutions for enterprise innovation management and mind mapping, announced the appointment of Amy Millard as their new Chief Marketing Officer.

Millard is responsible for leading all strategic and operational aspects of marketing for Mindjet's diverse global market, including product marketing, brand marketing, awareness, demand generation, communications, and customer experience.

Previously, Millard held executive roles as the VP of Marketing at Support.com and at Hearsay Social. She also managed worldwide marketing and demand generation for MarketTools, a provider of cloud software and services for customer experience and market research.

Millard earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Rice University and an MBA from Stanford University.

 



Jason_FoxConsumer Reports, the largest and most trusted consumer organization in the world, has named Jason Fox as Vice President, Digital. In his new role, he will lead efforts to strengthen the organization's digital products, forge digital partnerships to expand reach, and bring Consumer Reports to new communities.

Mr. Fox will report to Leonora Wiener, Vice President of Brand, Product Strategy and Integration at Consumer Reports.

Prior to joining Consumer Reports, Mr. Fox was the global head of product for Reuters News Agency, the world's largest multimedia news organization. At Reuters, he led a complete rethink of Reuters' flagship business-to-business product, Media Express. He also launched several innovative products, including Reuters Live Online, Reuters Access, Reuters Essential Video Archive, white-label solutions for the Olympics and World Cup, as well as a new business, Reuters-TIMA Location Services.

Before Reuters, Mr. Fox held several senior-level positions at Time Inc. where he helped reinvent leading digital properties including TIME, Fortune, and LIFE, and built critical partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Tumblr, and many others.

 

 


 

Dr._Harry_YangLenovo announced the appointment of Dr. Harry Yang as Vice President and General Manager of Lenovo’s South East Asia (SEA) region, which includes the markets of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Dr. Yang joins Lenovo from Acer, where he has served in leadership positions across Asia-Pacific for over two decades, including as Managing Director of Thailand, Indochina and Australia. His diverse achievements in Acer include rapidly expanding the brand’s presence in the region and successfully launching Acer’s operations in Myanmar and Vietnam. He will be based in Singapore and replace Kong Meng Koh, Vice President and the company’s previous ASEAN General Manager, who will be taking on a new and critical role of driving Lenovo’s Enterprise Business Group in Asia Pacific.

Dr Yang has an Honorary Doctorate in Computer Science from Thailand Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Florida Institute of Technology.

 


 

Amol_DigheContinuing its focus on bolstering trading and investment teams across the Asia Pacific region, Omnicom Media Group announced the appointment of Amol Dighe as Head of Investment, Omnicom Media Group India. His appointment in India is effective immediately and follows senior hires for the function in markets like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Amol will lead strategic insight and analysis over the OMD and PHD investment portfolio to ensure the best possible client outcomes are secured across all media platforms. In addition, he will be involved with special development projects across South East Asia.

Amol is a seasoned media professional, having worked on all sides of the value chain - client, agency and media owner. His expertise runs across buying, planning, negotiation and strategy; developing business systems with deep strength in analytical, organisational and managerial experience. He has a 360 degree view of the investment landscape and full insight into the spectrum of trading and negotiation strategies that can be applied to deliver maximum client value.

Prior to his new role at Omnicom Media Group, Amol has a depth of experience working with Unilever in a Regional Buying and Operations role for the Asia Pacific Region, working with Star TV Network to establish their Client Service Strategy and Planning unit and working with Group M India spanning over nine years. Most recently he was in a leadership role in Jakarta with Mindshare Indonesia.

 


 

M_FroahBrandable, a Singapore-based marketing and branding consultancy, has named Michelle Froah as Managing Director.

Michelle has 20+ years’ experience in global branding, marketing and operations and brings cross-functional branding and marketing industry experience, including diverse geographies and consumer industries, to the job. She is currently a Mobile Marketing Association APAC Board Member, a Founding Member of the Marketing Society SEA and works in an Advisory Role with WFA’s Project Reconnect.

Michelle is able to work with brands in a Chief Marketing Officer as a service structure, applying essential tools, including brand assessment, strategy, communications, operationalization, capability building and management. Brandable builds customized teams, drawing on experts in particular practice areas, working with leading thinkers to support holistic development and execution of the marketing plan.

Prior to joining Brandable, Michelle was Asia Pacific Regional Senior Marketing Director for Kimberly-Clark International where, as regional CMO, she was responsible for marketing capability and innovation across the portfolio of brands in the region. She joined Kimberly-Clark as the Global Feminine Care Director, where she helped build Kotex into a $1 billion global brand. Prior to that, Michelle was with Procter & Gamble as a senior leader in Beauty Care, with roles across product supply operations, sales, global brand management and regional P&L delivery on brands like Pantene and COVERGIRL. At COVERGIRL, Michelle led the end-to-end innovation and launch of LashBlast mascara, which notably became the cosmetic launch of the decade.

Michelle holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Tippe Business School at the University of Iowa, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University.

 


 

DaHavas Media Group announced the appointment of Damien Marchi as Global Head of Content. This news follows the Group’s recent launch of the Global Music Data Alliance with Universal Music Group and its partnership with NewsCred, the world’s leading content marketing platform.

Damien has more than 15 years of experience in the industry and is specialized in cross platform content production, commercialisation and marketing in TV and digital, across entertainment, drama and news. He has lived and worked in France, UK and Sweden where he led digital adaptations for shows such as The X Factor, Got Talent, Idols (FremantleMedia), Big Brother and Star Academy (Endemol). Furthermore, he has worked with brands such as RedBull, Air France, P&G and L'Oréal.

In 2006, Damien won an Emmy Award, while working for the production company Streampower in Paris on its interactive TV programme “CULT”. He also holds two Banff Awards (2010, 2011) for his time with FremantleMedia in London for producing online originals “Freak”, the UKs biggest teen drama of that year, and “SortedFood” which became the UKs largest cooking community on YouTube. He also works as an advisor to the United Nations advising UNRIC, its Western European information bureau on digital communications.

Prior to joining Havas, Damien was a member of the executive committee of Euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe, in charge of innovation and products, championing the digital transformation of the newsroom. In addition, Damien drove FremantleMedia and Euronews to become respectively the worlds’ number one production company and news network on YouTube.

In line with the Group’s “Havas’ Village” approach to promote integration between its divisions, Damien is working closely with Lucien Boyer, Global CEO of Havas Sports & Entertainment and Vin Farrell, Global Chief Content Officer for Havas Worldwide. He reports directly to Dominique Delport.and is based in the Havas Paris HQ.

 


 

danOMD announced the promotion of Dan Robins to lead the OMD Sydney digital team as Head Of Interactive, filling the role vacated by Stuart Bailey’s promotion to Chief Digital Officer late last year. His promotion is effective immediately.

Reporting to Stuart, Dan will take overall responsibility for the OMD digital output in Sydney as well as the continuous development of OMD’s digital product.

 


 

Mimi_NicklinMimi Nicklin recently joined Grey Group Asia Pacific as Vice President, GSK, spearheading the nutrition and oral health businesses for the brand. She will report to Konstantin Popovic, Executive Vice President for GSK.

Mimi is an internationally experienced strategic communication and brand-marketing professional, known for her innovative approach to building ideas in the emerging markets, as well as her outstanding leadership skills. She was part of the Grey family from 2006 to 2010, with roles based in both Europe and Asia, and has a communications and advertising background.

For the last four years, she has been a shareholder and Strategic Planning Director of ‘34’ in South Africa, a creative and through-the-line agency, where she led the brand strategy and organizational vision for the business and its clients. She continues to be one of the leading faces of shopper marketing in South Africa and has been nominated twice as one of WPP‘s Global Rising Leaders.

Mimi’s agency 34 won many creativity awards, most recently; the Silver Loerie Design 2014, Bronze Digital Loerie 2014, as well as an Epica and a Midas Award in 2014. She also led the agency to win ‘Specialist Agency of the Year’ twice last year.