R/GA picks new managing director for SEA

Creative innovation company R/GA has named Krishnan Menon (pictured) as its new managing director of Southeast Asia.

Krishnan will be reporting to Michael Titshall, CEO of APAC at R/GA. Titshall joined the agency as its new APAC CEO last year.

Krishnan will closely collaborate with R/GA’s regional team, encompassing executive leadership in strategy, creative, and technology.

With his new role, Krishnan will also be overseeing offices in Singapore and Indonesia. His focus will be on integrating the disciplines of brand, experience, communications, data, and technology to deliver solutions to clients that drive growth for their businesses in new ways, according to the agency in a statement. 

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With more than 26 years of client facing experience, Krishnan brings people, clients and capabilities together to solve brand challenges. He has helped clients, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, BOSE, Nestle, AIA, HSBC and the Singapore government transform their customer engagement approach and use data to build human-centric experiences, said R/GA.

Krishnan joins R/GA from Ogilvy & Mather where he was president of experience for APAC for just over a year. He led the Ogilvy Experience practice, overseeing leadership, client partnerships, collaboration within WPP, and talent cultivation. 

His role was focused on advancing customer experience strategies, embracing the necessity for agility to meet the evolving demands of customers and ensuring a seamless, omnichannel experience journey, according to his LinkedIn page. 

Prior to that, Krishnan was chief client officer, Merkle, CXM APAC at Dentsu for just over a year. In the role, he was steered client relations within the CXM division. He was also tasked with the strategic realignment and unification of client management and delivery teams across the APAC region. Here, he worked with clients such as Shiseido, Mastercard, Standard Chartered Bank, among others.

Krishnan also spent time at Wunderman Thompson which he joined in 2010 as its regional business director. He quickly moved up the ranks and was finally appointed its chief client and growth officer, APAC in 2019. Here, he took the helm of the client and growth portfolios for the newly established agency across the Asia Pacific region. His mandate involved steering the business growth for both existing and prospective clients throughout all its markets.

“Krishnan is a proven strategic marketer with the ability to combine creativity and technology that drives clients’ businesses forward,” said Titshall.

Titshall added that Krishnan’s human approach to creative innovation made him the perfect fit for leading R/GA’s next era across Southeast Asia.

“We’re thrilled to have someone of his calibre join us to help clients grow in new ways,” he added.

“It’s been great to meet such a diverse group of incredibly smart people at R/GA,” said Krishnan.

He added that the cross-cultural nature of the team is deliberate and is reflected in the attitudes and the innovative and creative work that can only come from diverse minds working seamlessly together.

"In a time of narrowing industry agendas around tech for tech’s sake or data for data’s sake, it’s refreshing to join a team that sees the world more holistically, that sees consumers as people, and that is focused on building brands and businesses for a more human future,” said Krishnan

This news comes after R/GA Singapore's senior vice president, managing director of Asia Dorothy Peng stepped down after eight years at the agency, according to R/GA when MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out at the time.

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