ASIA-PACIFIC – SHANGHAI, CHINA, MARCH 15, 2011 – Following the creation of DDB Greater China Group in January, President and CEO Dick van Motman has announced several significant changes to its management structure.
DDB Greater China Group consists of five offices (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei) and four brands (DDB, DDB Guoan, RAPP, Tribal DDB).
Effective immediately, this restructure aims to bring together the individual agencies to create a truly integrated network that will drive creativity and innovation. The thinking will be around having a “fixed and flexible” mindset of operations, placing our leadership and talent in the appropriate places that will best serve the needs of our clients.
“The restructuring will enable DDB to better operate as one interconnected organization. Each of our five agencies are strong individually, but combined will create a structure designed to unlock our belief that ‘creativity is the most powerful force in the business’ across Greater China. We will now have a leadership team in place that can successfully drive this,” said van Motman.
“This new structure will allow our clients to have greater access to our best talent and our best work wherever they may be located. We believe this type of innovation and flexibility is important to our clients in such a fast moving, constantly evolving market like Greater China,” he added.
Under the new changes, every office will be headed up by a President – whose responsibility is to drive integration across disciplines, oversee and strengthen operations of their offices, while building on the agency’s momentum and maximizing growth potential.
In addition to the newly created roles of office Presidents, DDB Greater China Group will also put in place a leader by discipline (RAPP, Tribal DDB), reporting directly to Dick van Motman. Each discipline will be tasked with strengthening and maintaining the quality of our agency brands. Further to this, the Group will also create leadership functions to drive operational efficiencies and highlight the fact that digital sits right at the heart of the Group’s business.
The Presidents will be:
• Jesse Lin, currently Managing Director of DDB Shanghai and Vice President of DDB China Group, will be President of DDB Group Shanghai;
• Richard Tan, currently Managing Director of DDB Guoan and Vice President of DDB China Group, will be President of DDB Guoan Group, Beijing;
• Simone Tam, currently Managing Director of DDB Hong Kong, will be President of DDB Group Hong Kong and Guangzhou;
• Roy Soetanto, currently Managing Director of DDB Taiwan, will take on the role of Co-President DDB Group Taiwan along with Sheena Jeng who joined last week.
The leaders by discipline will be:
• Eric Phu, currently Managing Director of Tribal DDB Hong Kong, will be promoted to Vice President, Tribal DDB Greater China;
• Ross Gearing, currently Managing Director of RAPP China, will be promoted to Vice President, RAPP Greater China;
• Tim Schlick in Shanghai and Milo Chao in Beijing will be Co-Heads of Strategic Planning, DDB Greater China Group.
Furthermore, Teo NeeChuan will be elevated from Chief Financial Officer of DDB China Group to Director of Operations, DDB Greater China Group to drive efficiency across the network. To support not just digital growth but also to digitalize the entire Group operation beyond just Tribal DDB, Jit Hoong Ng will take on the role of Digital Development Officer Greater China in addition to his ongoing responsibilities as Managing Director of Tribal DDB Shanghai.
John Zeigler, Chairman and CEO of DDB Group Asia Pacific said, “Clients are looking to agencies to make their brands famous. Our new structure will consolidate our leadership in all communication areas, serve to bring clients more effective integrated solutions across all disciplines and locations, and strengthen our business by transforming us into one powerful unified agency in Greater China.”
