The Hoffman Agency names new managing director for APAC

Global communications agency, The Hoffman Agency, has named Dominique Rose Van-Winther (pictured) as its new managing director for APAC, succeeding Caroline Hsu, who will take on the role of chief global officer, a role she took on in 2022 in parallel to that of APAC managing director. 

The addition of Van-Winther to Hoffman’s leadership marks an elevation of capabilities and the start of a new phase of growth in Asia-Pacific as well as globally. Van-Winther will be based in Singapore and report to Hsu while all regional market leads will report to her.

Van-Winther’s experience in business consulting, operations and growth will enable her to build on this solid foundation to unlock economies of scale for the agency and clients. She will combine her expertise in business, technology and data to advance Hoffman’s hyper-value proposition as an agency that helps clients address major commercial challenges such as talent acquisition and market entry.

Van-Winther also aims to drive the adoption of fast-developing tools such as AI at the agency while retaining a human-centric perspective. She sees firsthand experience of technology as important to help businesses cut through an increasing volume of noise, according to the release. 

She joins the agency with nearly two decades of experience in technology, B2B and consumer agency and management consulting, much of it in APAC. Her experience includes running her own consulting firm specialising in areas such as change management, employee engagement and training, and regional leadership in operations and business development at Weber Shandwick over a period of more than 10 years. 

With her active involvement in emerging technology such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), she is also the founder and COO of the Blockchain and Crypto Association of Singapore (BCAS).

Don’t miss: Why The Hoffman Agency chose 2023 to expand into Malaysia

“Van-Winther has deep roots in both Asian and Western geographies. As a global agency, we value the confluence of insight that this experience brings. We also put a premium on the combination of technological know-how, business expertise and consumer-centricity,” said Hsu. She added that the appointment reflects the agency’s commitment to cultural and professional diversity.

“Her appointment marks a levelling up for the agency and will enable us to create even more value for clients in a world where accelerating technological change and geopolitical and economic upheaval are facts of life,” Hsu added.

Van-Winther said: "As a technology company, your biggest competitor might not even exist yet. Faced with exponential change, you have to think and move fast, take chances and get things wrong just to have a chance at making it in the coming decade.” 

She added: “Almost every company is evolving to become a tech company in some form, but the space is full of noise and that is only going to get worse now that the bar to producing content has dropped. You have to put creativity, storytelling and originality at your core to break through. I’m excited that Hoffman’s DNA means we can be the tech consigliere of choice, embracing and navigating the chaos.”

“I came here because this firm, these people, these clients, are breaking the model - on culture, on work, on delivery,” she told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, expressing excitement at bringing the agency’s tech-driven spirit to new clients across the region.

“We're not just in the business of tech — we are the eye of Silicon Valley's storm, where only a team of virtuosos who speak fluent tech can really work with clients together to navigate and help to redefine where we are going.”

This appointment comes as the agency strengthens its position in APAC, with an expansion into Kuala Lumpur in March 2023. In a conversation with A+M, Maureen Tseng, managing director of Hoffman Southeast Asia, previously said at the time that Malaysia had always been a strategic market for the agency in Southeast Asia. The agency's decision to open an office in the country was born out of a confluence of factors, such as its rapidly growing economy.

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