Y&R announces senior appointments in Asia

Y&R has announced a few senior appointments as part of its ambitious plans to transform its Asia business to help its clients ‘win the future’.

Andrea Conyard joins Y&R as Southeast Asia CEO and Chief Growth Officer, a new role for the network. Conyard will drive Y&R’s growth in the region and leading operations across Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

Conyard brings with him over 20 years of experience working with some of the region’s largest brands, most recently as CEO for Havas Singapore. Taking up his position from September, he will be responsible for implementing Y&R’s growth strategy across the region, working with Y&R’s senior local leaders in each market.

He is joined by Damien Tew, who comes to Y&R as Managing Director, Greater Bay Area (GBA), China, to oversee Y&R’s business growth and operations across the GBA, the world’s next Silicon Valley.

A digital specialist, Tew joins after spending five years at Global Digital Agency, Digitas, most recently as Managing Director, where he was responsible for building the China business network from its social media specialism to full-service digital marketing agency status. In his new role, he will oversee growth and operations across Y&R’s existing offices in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, while also working to build Y&R GBA into a leading digital and technology offering for China.

Y&R has also announced that Y&R General Manager for Hong Kong, Beverly Ho, has been promoted to Head of Regional Accounts and Business Development with immediate effect. Beverly has been with Y&R for over 10 years and in her new role, will be the lead for Y&R’s regional client-base, overseeing regional accounts and driving new business across the network.

The trio will report directly to Asia President Chris Foster and join the regional leadership team.

“The winning packages of the future no longer fit in the rigid and fragile containers of the past,” said Foster. “Now is the time for radical optimism inspired and fuelled by the exciting interface between human insight and technology, which when harnessed properly, will drive the heart of business to new heights.”

Since joining Y&R in November 2017, Foster has set aggressive plans into motion to transform the shape of Y&R Asia to propel its clients in the region, which includes creating a “culture of winning” through the practice of “Creative Intelligence”.

Foster said, “At Y&R we believe that the companies and brands of the future will need to seamlessly connect community, sustainability and purpose to create meaning for people.”

“Creative Intelligence is where technology meets human ingenuity to produce ground-breaking results for clients. We see this as the future, working to expand our capabilities and approach to technology with our eyes firmly fixed on enhancing our offerings across ecommerce, data analytics and user experience, in line with the exciting technological developments we are seeing in the market. We will also be investing and building on our proprietary Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) practice in the region by incorporating real-time social data and analytics to generate greater understanding and insight into how people perceive, interact and purchase our clients’ brands.”

“We are delighted to welcome Andrea and Damien to the Y&R family and congratulate Beverly on her well-deserved promotion as the first phase in our transformative journey. Their expertise and deep knowledge of the Asian markets will be instrumental in helping us and our clients to realise our ambitions for the future.”

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