Kuala Lumpur — In conjunction with the new year, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia refreshes itself with an influx of new talent. In line with BBDO/Proximity’s mantra “The Work, The Work, The Work,” the agency’s brand new team has amassed years of experience and is well-honed to produce effective and award-winning work.
“In our continued effort to deliver integrated solutions to our clients businesses and brands, our agency will be fueled by team of eight very competent and talented creatives and executives to drive our client’s businesses and ours. By virtue of the fact that talent is our greatest asset, we are richer with this new team. We are excited to start the year in full-steam,” said Group Chief Executive Jennifer Chan.
BBDO/Proximity Malaysia welcomes VJ Anand, Creative Group Head, who will work closely with Executive Creative Director Mun Tuck Wai, to deliver a fully integrated offering and ideas that engage your consumers. Vijay arrives at the agency with more than a decade of experience in the digital scene at IDM/Cellnetwork, XM and Ogilvy Interactive as well as ATL (Dark Marketing) with TBWA and Ogilvy. Having spent more than year in Activation and Digital at Riverorchid Bangkok, Vijay is back to rock the digital scene in Malaysia.
Adding to that, the new team also boasts a familiar face and fine leader, capable of managing and integrating the two agencies. With immediate effect, Michelle Achuthan will take on an expanded role as General Manager of both BBDO and Proximity. Achuthan has almost 20 years of experience in the industry, with the last six with BBDO.
“As Michelle sees it, she’s a generalist in a group of specialists and together as a team, they will be a formidable force to be reckoned with,” Chan said.
While the team will add value to the entire group, the most of the new faces falls under the rubric of Proximity Malaysia.
Karen Koay, Account Director is a specialist in both direct and interactive marketing. She has a strong understanding of back-end operations and execution of projects and is by nature dedicated, accountable and reliable. She has worked with Grey, Wunderman as well as Arachnid on key brands such as Celcom, Toyota, Volvo, Mead Johnson, Citibank and Dunhill.
Syamsiah Yassin, Project Manager, has worked in the interactive industry for four years on a diverse portfolio which includes categories such as automobile, FMCG, Corporate and Entertainment. Previous clients have included UMW Toyota, Ford, Coca-Cola, KFC, Unilever (Malaysia & Singapore) and Asia Brands.
Karen Wong, Senior Technology Manager has more than 6 years of digital experience in research, mentoring and development. She was previously with Yolk (Singapore) where she was the lead interactive researcher and developer; during her tenure she developed projects for Singapore Parliament House, touchscreen interface for DiGi 360 store and Xin Wang. Openly acknowledged as being the best in her field, this innovator has worked on Malaysia’s first motion gesture and paper-vision integration for a blue chip brand a few years back.
Stephanie Yep, Senior Account Manager has more than 6 years in a spectrum of skills including PR, events and through-the-line integrated advertising. Prior to joining Proximity, she was with Cheil Worldwide Malaysia, managing and leading the entire integrated advertising portfolio including the digital business of Samsung mobile for four years.
Imiriah Othman, Senior Account Manager brings along with her three years of experience in interactive from working with various clients such as Samsung Mobile, McDonald’s, BMW/MINI Malaysia, Honda and Volvo at Arachnid Group’s subsidiary Slipknot.
Lay Jian Yi, Art Director for Proximity started his career in mainstream advertising before venturing into digital and CRM and has won a slew of Kancil, DMAM, Asia Interactive Awards and AAdAsiaawards. Prior to Proximity, Lay worked on a wide portfolio of brands such as Hotlink, Air Asia, HP & BMW/MINI Malaysia.
Amidst this great line up of fresh, exciting, new talent, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia must bid farewell to Proximity’s Business Director Janet Teo, who will be relocated to Dubai with her husband.
“Janet has done an outstanding job in leading and growing Proximity/BBDO and more importantly has been an integral part in helping identify many of the talent that are now with us. We’re sad to see her go but family duty calls and we wish her well,” Chan said.
