L'Oréal Malaysia names Edward Ling chief digital officer

L'Oréal Malaysia has appointed Edward Ling to the newly created role of chief digital officer to map the consumer decision journey, support eCommerce expansion, as well as tailor the digital and media strategies and ad spends for the brand teams, according to his LinkedIn. Ling (pictured) will also monitor digital performance and consumer engagement, and spearhead digital transformation and upskilling. He reports to Malek Bekdache, MD of L'Oréal Malaysia.

In a statement to A+M, Ling said his vision for his new role is to "progress the company for a world where half of the business transacted via eCommerce and 80% of consumer interactions happening online". He will focus on eCommerce acceleration, putting data at the heart of marketing, recruiting top digital and tech talent, building digital capabilities and embedding them in the business, and realising L'Oréal as a beauty tech company.

Before joining L'Oréal, he was with Google for more than four years, last helming the role of strategic partner manager, Indonesia and Malaysia. In that role, he led transformational, high growth and product-enabling partnerships with automated storebuilders, eCommerce platforms, ad tech and marketing tech platforms, his LinkedIn said. He first joined the company in 2015 as country manager for Waze in Malaysia and went on to helm roles such as regional industry manager and digital acceleration programme lead (special project), according to his LinkedIn.

Ling has also worked at Fujitsu Malaysia for close to seven years, and was the founder and CEO of Supervenio Technologies. His LinkedIn profile said that the startup focused on designing and developing traffic navigation systems on an AI platform.

Separately, A+M also understands that the CMO role previously helmed by Lee Lim Meng is now split between Ling and chief consumer officer Chew Lee Min. A+M has reached out to L'Oréal for comment. Meanwhile in April this year, the brand named Shelly Chiang CMO of Asia Pacific. Prior to this, Chiang was the digital director of Asia Pacific for more than a year. She has been with the company for over 16 years, starting out as an internet communications executive in Taiwan.

Join us on a three-week journey at Digital Marketing Asia 2020 as we delve into the realm of digital transformation, data and analytics, and mobile and eCommerce from 10 to 26 November. Sign up here!

Related articles:
L'Oreal makes sustainability push in Singapore
'Glow' to reportedly replace 'whitening' on labelling as L'Oreal adapts communication
L'Oreal reconciles with former brand ambassador after copping flak for hypocrisy
After L'Oréal, Arsenal next to cop flak for hypocrisy over Black Lives Matter post
L'Oréal appoints CMO for Asia Pacific
L'Oréal Paris Malaysia concludes social media pitch