Sorrell picks former Xaxis chief Michel de Rijk as S4 Capital's APAC CEO

S4 Capital has appointed former GroupM’s global chief growth officer, performance media group Michel de Rijk (pictured) as APAC CEO. He stepped down from his global role in GroupM last month.  Several media outlets have reported that de Rijk will hold operational responsibility in APAC.He will also be focusing on the digital content, media planning and buying, as well as first-party data. It was also said that De Rijk's appointment will mark as the first direct WPP manager at S4. Prior to his last role with GroupM, de Rijk was APAC president of [m]PLATFORM and Xaxis CEO of Asia Pacific before that.In a LinkedIn post, de Rijk said he had never expected it to be “such an amazing ride” when he was first contacted to run and build Xaxis Asia Pacific seven years ago. “Starting from a single desk to our 21 offices across the region with hundreds of superstars working day in and out, to deliver the vision we had all set out and establish what programmatic advertising stands for today,” he said. Marketing has reached out to S4 Capital for comment.Most recently, Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, revealed the company’s next steps ahead of its relisting after being rebranded from Derriston Capital. The move also comes on the back of S4 Capital’s prospectus release which outlines the company’s future.In a statement, Sorrell said that S4 Capital will focus on three areas of growth in the initial stages. This includes the further development of a global digital content platform, a first-party data offering which fuels both digital media planning and creative ideas and lastly, digital media buying. Overall, the organisation looks to provide global, multi-national, regional, local clients and influencer-driven Millennial brands with “new age/new era digital marketing services”.Read more:Martin Sorrell beats WPP in the MediaMonks acquisition dealBoth WPP and Sorrell’s S4 Capital tipped to make a play for MediaMonksMediaMonks debut new R&D division to service brands and agencies