Havas bolsters HK leadership with senior appointments

Havas Hong Kong has promoted Andrew Cawte (pictured left) to the CEO of Havas Media Network and Ricky Lam (pictured right) to CEO of Havas Creative, effective immediately. They both report to Karl Wu, chairman and CEO of Havas Greater China.

The appointments come following Havas Hong Kong saw impressive growth over the last three years, the launch of new events and social content business units, according to the release.  The appointments aim to further strengthen its leadership and continue delivering exceptional services to its clients.  

Cawte brings 30 years of marketing leadership experience in Hong Kong to his new role as CEO of Havas Media Network. Cawte has been managing director of Havas Media since 2015.  

In 2023, Cawte launched Havas Play, a dedicated event and sports marketing business, to capitalise on the post-covid shift of marketing budgets from media to in-person activations. 

Meanwhile, Lam has taken the leadership role of Havas Creative Hong Kong since 2016. As a homegrown advertising veteran, Lam has extensive agency experience across Hong Kong and Mainland China.  

Before Lam rejoined Havas Hong Kong, he had worked in Beijing and Shanghai for over five years, where he was a key business leader and client partner for global clients of the agencies he worked for.  

Partnering with Cawte, Lam has transformed Havas into one of the most integrated agencies in the market and accelerated the growth of the agency’s business, talents and creativity. 

“We are the first agency to have brought all marketing disciplines back together under one roof, in what we call Havas Village. We have put great importance on the development of strategic consultancy,” said Cawte.  

“We have built an exceptional performance marketing team, a highly talented social media team with our own live and scripted content creators, an event and sport marketing unit who are delivering outstanding work and our own in-house programmatic trading team,” he added. 

“I started my agency career at EURO RSCG Hong Kong (former Havas) and I’m always proud of being part of the many successes of the company. While I've been playing the management role over the past few years, I’ve really enjoy working with a group of young, passionate talents who have helped me grow and achieve this milestone. My promotion, obviously, is largely contributed by my team”, said Lam. 

This move comes as Havas Hong Kong pushes onto it’s next stage of growth, with large expansion plans over the coming years. Karl Wu, chairman & CEO of Havas Greater China, said: “We have a committed, strong and dynamic team of talents here in Hong Kong, exemplified by individuals such as Cawte and Lam.” 

“They are the foundation of our continuing success in this key regional market hub. Our creativity elevation, strategic consultancy, media innovations, and diversified services of Havas Play, IP creation and activation, eCom and data are highly recognised by the market. More clients work with us across multiple domains from consultancy to creative to media to experiential. We will tackle this clientele change to further expand the growth of our Havas Village and provide higher converged values to our clients,” he added. 

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