The elevation of O&M Asia-Pacific head Miles Young to global CEO set off a chain of management promotions in January: Tim Isaac, Paul Heath and David Mayo. On the creative side, in November Tham Khai Meng become Worldwide Creative Director of the global advertising network – the first Asian ever to do so.
Having joined Ogilvy in 2009, the Singaporean Khai is credited with leading the network to both creative and financial success. During his tenure, Ogilvy Asia-Pacific was named Campaign Brief’s Creative Network of the Year for seven consecutive years.
Khai’s global appointment, coinciding with that of Young, is considered a turning point in Asia’s growing prominence in global advertising.
Taking the reins as Chairman of Ogilvy Asia-Pacific is longtime Miles Young lieutenant Tim Isaac. Since his appointment at yearend, Isaac has acted quickly to emerge from Young’s long shadow, launching ogilvyonrecession.com, a website that make the case directly to finance managers and other advertising skeptics.
Isaac’s main rival for the top regional job, Paul Heath, was appointed to the newly created role of CEO of O&M Asia Pacific. Most recently, Heath led O&M Advertising in the region to record new business success.
Heath’s seat in turn was filled by David Mayo, Heath’s vice-president for Advertising for the last three years. Upon his appointment as regional president, Mayo said only that he would maintain Advertising as the “front door” to a network of services. (He was also quoted as saying that on the local level, the agency would remain “lean, hungry and terrier-like.”)
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