Chris Riley and Nizwani Shahar expand remit as Ogilvy shuffles Asia leadership

Ogilvy has reshuffled its leadership in Asia, making multiple appointments. Chris Riley (pictured left), chairman of Ogilvy Singapore, has been promoted to group chairman, Singapore and Malaysia as the agency aims to maximise the impact of its resources. This comes as clients are increasingly looking to coordinate operations across both markets, with the new combined set up featuring over 350 individuals across the two offices.

The leadership appointments also see Nizwani Shahar (pictured right), co-chief executive at Ogilvy Malaysia, being promoted to the sole chief executive for the network. She will work closely with Riley in her new role. Meanwhile, Campbell Cannon, who was previously appointed co-chief executive alongside Nizwani in April last year, will move to an important regional client role in Malaysia, with details to be announced.

On a regional level, Reed Collins has also been elevated from his role of chief creative officer, North Asia to chief creative officer Asia. The expansion of his role follows the upcoming departure of Sonal Dabral announced in India just yesterday. Collins joined Ogilvy in 2013 and served as chief creative officer in Hong Kong before taking on the North Asia remit.

Meanwhile, Sarah-Leith Izzard has returned to the network as regional executive creative director, after a short stint with Germany-based advertising agency Jung von Matt. Based in Hong Kong, Izzard has worked with brands such as Nikon, Huawei, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and Chanel. According to Ogilvy, she will work alongside Collins to focus on its largest clients in Asia.

In East Asia, Ogilvy veteran Remington Ji has also rejoined the network as chief delivery officer, North Asia. Based in Beijing, Ji will collaborate with Amir Mireskandari, chief delivery officer, South Asia, in leading all aspects of the making of the agency's work in Asia Pacific. Incumbent Alexander Lee will leave the network to pursue other interests. Geometry Ogilvy Japan has promoted Sean Palmer to GM, following the departure of Jack Mickle. Palmer who started with the network in 2006 in New York, and moved to Japan in 2017, will join the executive leadership team led by chief executive Ichiro Ota.

The announcement also sees Ogilvy Vietnam handing VP Soames Hines the chief executive mandate, replacing Duc Nguyen who has left the agency to pursue new interests. Meanwhile in India, Kainaz Karmakar, Harshad Rajadhyaksha and Sukesh Nayak have been promoted to co-chief creative officers, with more than 40 years of Ogilvy experience among them.

Chris Reitermann, co-chief executive for Ogilvy Asia, said the agency set its ambitions high for 2019 to bring the power of a fully integrated modern agency to its clients to help them grow in a very challenging market environment. "2019 was the year that showed our leadership and focus on making our clients’ brands matter through creativity and technology, in a highly integrated way, is paying off," Reitermann said.

Kent Wertime, co-chief executive, Asia, said this group of individuals has decades of proven experience within the network. "Whilst we continue to develop a pipeline of new next generation talent, we could not be more proud of individuals such as these who have built long-term successful careers with us as we continue to evolve our modern marketing skillsets needed for the future," he added.

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