BBH Asia chairman Charles Wigley exits

BBH Asia chairman Charles Wigley will be stepping down from his role after 19 years. He first joined the creative agency in 1987 as an account planner, and left five years later to join Bates. He returned to BBH in 2001 and has since helmed the Asia chairman role. Wigley will serve the agency until end of June, and will be relocating to the UK to complete the education of his two sons.

According to BBH Asia, Chaz, as he is popularly called, has been instrumental to the agency’s business. He worked on a broad range of key clients across Singapore, India and China that include NTUC Income, Sentosa, UOB, Singapore Tourism Board, Singtel and Max Factor to name a few. He has also handled large global clients such as Levi's, Coca-Cola and Johnnie Walker across the region, delivering transformative strategic work.

A pillar of BBH’s planning community, Chaz is also widely acknowledged for building the agency’s strong reputation for strategic excellence. He leaves behind a team of planners with the strategic charge being led by Jacob Wright and Rebecca Ash in Singapore, Siyuan Aw in China and Sanjay Sharma in India.

Neil Munn, global chief executive officer, BBH said: "We have been very fortunate to have Chaz's razor-sharp brain working for BBH and our clients over the last two decades. I know of very few minds that are capable of being as broad and precise at the same time. Chaz has made a fine contribution to the health of the industry in Asia and will be leaving with our immense gratitude".

Meanwhile, Wigley said: “If you are going to have to work for a living I can think of few better places than BBH in Asia over the last 20 years. Top people, huge fun and great work. It's been a blast and I am grateful to everybody I have worked with over that time and proud of what we built. When I joined BBH in Asia in 2001, we were 36 people in a shophouse on Duxton Hill and now we are 300 across Shanghai, Mumbai and Singapore. With the BBH culture and all the talent we have in the region, I can only see it going from strength to strength. They certainly don't need me anymore."

Prior to his stint with BBH, Wigley was with Australian branding agency Principals for five years as its planning principal. He was also the senior planner at George Patterson Y&R briefly.

Recently in Singapore, BBH shuffled its senior leadership. Executive creative director Sascha Kuntze took on the role of chief creative officer at BBH Singapore, following the elevation of Joakim Borgström to global creative role at BBH. Borgström succeeded Pelle Sjoenell as worldwide CCO, as Sjoenell stepped down from his role to join Activision Blizzard as global video game developer, publisher and distributor.

Earlier this year, BBH Singapore was also handed the global creative remit for Jollibee. BBH Singapore will be tasked to manage the brand and communications strategy and execution across International market projects. Jollibee Food Corporation has been growing its presence in the region, and in Sepember last year, it acquired The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf brand for US$350 million. 

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