M&C Saatchi Performance hands Kabeer Chaudhary APAC MD reins

M&C Saatchi Performance has promoted Kabeer Chaudhary to the role of MD APAC. Chaudhary (pictured left) served as managing partner, APAC for the past two years and has been with the agency since 2015. This comes as former MD APAC Chris Steedman (pictured right) returned to the UK last December and is currently on a year-long sabbatical following the birth of his second child. Steedman founded the performance agency in APAC in 2013, and has since expanded its operations into Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, Bangalore, New Delhi and Bangkok.

The team is currently 91-man strong spread across six office in APAC. According to M&C Saatchi Performance's spokesperson, the agency is "expanding at a reasonable rate" and Chaudhary's vision is to turn it into the top performance marketing agency in the region, trusted by clients and partners alike. To achieve this vision, he plans to work with the team to create a trustworthy, transparent, and consultative marketing ecosystem for clients to be able to leverage on.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Chaudhary said the digital marketing ecosystem is evolving faster than most people can follow. This year, the industry will start seeing the initial effects of the deprecation of the cookie and the IDFA. In effect, behavioural targeting will become less effective and performance measurement will become more probabilistic. "It’s necessary for agencies to be on top of their game, and help their clients traverse through the constantly evolving complexities of our industry," he added.

Meanwhile, Chaudhary also acknowledged that he feels fortunate to have worked alongside Steedman to get the agency to where the agency is today. "I am excited to take on his role and continue building on the business momentum we have created in the Asia Pacific region over the past years," he said.

Steedman said the decision to appoint Chaudhary as the successor was easy. "It has been an exciting journey since I first arrived in 2013. I am proud of how far M&C Saatchi Performance has come. I am confident M&C Saatchi Performance will continue to excel with Chaudhary at the helm. He is worthy of this new role and I wish him every success," Steedman added.