Manulife Singapore's marketing head steps down

Aparna Guruprasad (pictured) has stepped down from her role as head of marketing at Manulife Singapore. Chief customer officer and chief product officer Darren Thompson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that Guruprasad joined the team early last year. "Everyone at Manulife Singapore is extremely grateful for her hard work and wishes her well for the future as she moves on to pursue new opportunities," he said.

According to Aparna's LinkedIn, she is an experienced leader in brand, marketing and customer experience. She is also able to effectively utilise creativity, commercial viability, and collaboration to achieve "best-in-class results for the customer and the organisation".

Prior to joining Manulife Singapore, Guruprasad was head of marketing, international and institutional banking at ANZ for over six years. She was also previously head of brand management and marketing services at HSBC and, before that, regional management director at JWT. Other companies Guruprasad has worked at include Lowe, Monsoon Advertising, as well as Clarion Advertising in India. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Guruprasad for comment.

Meanwhile, on a regional level, Julie Nestor is also stepping down from her role as Manulife's chief marketing and experience design officer, Asia. During her time at Manulife, the company's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE then that Nestor has made significant contributions to the company's marketing efforts across Asia Pacific. They included driving continued improvements in NPS, building up Manulife's behavioural insurance platform, ManulifeMOVE, as well as contributing greatly to its DE&I efforts through launching an Employee Resource Group in Asia that focuses on disabilities.

Separately, last year, Manulife appointed dentsu to handle global media and creative duties in an attempt to amplify and evolve its brand. Manulife previously launched the next phase of its strategy, with an emphasis on its Asia and Global Wealth and Asset Management businesses and digital transformation including its journey to become the most digital, customer-centric global company in its industry. This announcement marked the first time that Manulife has selected a single global agency that reflects the diversity of its individual markets. A month before that, it named Dudley White as head of communications for Asia. Based in Hong Kong, White currently oversees internal and external communications across Manulife’s Asia markets.

Related articles:
Manulife Asia CMO Julie Nestor to step down
Manulife hands global media and creative remit to dentsu
Manulife Asia names Dudley White head of communications
Mohamed Adam Wee resurfaces at Manulife Malaysia as CMO
Former Manulife SG marketer Cheryl Lim joins OTT player Viu