Ex-Malaysia Airlines' brand lead Sagar Paranjpe joins Bonsey Jaden

Sagar Paranjpe, former head of brand, strategy, and creative at Malaysia Airlines, has joined Bonsey Jaden as MD overseeing the Malaysia market. He reports to group GM Francois Filamor with a dotted line to group CEO Daniel Posavac. The team has 50 individuals in Malaysia.

When asked about his vision for the team, Paranjpe (pictured) told A+M that he wanted to focus on what the immediate need of the hour is. "What I do know is that mass resignations and brain drain have hit the industry quite badly, and having been a client for four years now, I know that clients are looking for stability in their agency partners," he explained.

According to him, Bonsey Jaden Malaysia hasn't had a leader in a long time now, and the very first step towards stability was to bring in this leadership. Hence, his objective is pretty much cut out for him. "I need to work on developing a strong, sustainable culture such that the team will want to not just stay in the organisation but also grow with it," Paranjpe said. Ultimately, he added that this strength in culture and stability in the organisation will provide the confidence that the clients need in the industry as it directly affects their growth too.

Before Bonsey Jaden, Paranjpe previously spent four years with Malaysia's national carrier and told A+M back then that having worked in ad agencies most of his life and being in quite a liberal environment, walking into a GLC was "quite the culture shock" for him. Over time, however, he learnt how to navigate the company and its processes and was given more responsibility.

He was elevated to head of brand, strategy, and creative in 2021 and first joined MAB as creative director, global. Paranjpe also worked at Geometry Global, Grey Group, and JWT.

Meanwhile, on the leadership front, Bonsey Jaden promoted Filamor to group GM overseeing Southeast Asia and Australia earlier this year. He currently leads the agency's GMs across the different markets. Succeeding him as GM of Philippines was Kris Villongco who was previously the business development supervisor.

At the same time, the agency also beefed up its creative team last month by appointing Daniel Loo as regional ECD. He was previously head of copy at Grab and worked at Ogilvy, McCann, and Hakuhodo.

Bonsey Jaden is now part of CUE Group, a China-based digital tech group which acquired a majority stake in the agency last year. The acquisition was done to boost CUE Group's expansion across Asia and the US. Following the acquisition, Posavac is now MD of CUE Group in Southeast Asia in addition to his role as group CEO of Bonsey Jaden.

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