VMLY&R MY boosts creative suite with new senior hires

Brand and customer experience agency VMLY&R Malaysia has made a string of new hires to beef up its creative capabilities. It has picked Suryadipura Salleh as its new executive creative director. He will report to VMLY&R Malaysia's chief creative officer, Didi Pirinyuang. According to VMLY&R, Salleh was handpicked for his unique creative vision and brand of leadership. He will be partnering ECDs Phoecus Lee and KC Aui. 

With 18 years of experience in the industry under his belt, Salleh started his career with BBDO Malaysia and has since worked on many campaigns from financial institutions to drug rehabilitation. Prior to his current role, Salleh spent the longest tenure of his career in Naga DDB Tribal from 2017 to 2023 where he was the creative director and worked with clients such as KFC, Tiger Beer, Wonda Coffee, Himalaya Sports Candy and CUCKOO to name a few, as gleaned from his LinkedIn page.

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Rounding out the team of creative directors are Suffian Rahman and Maura Soewarna. Rahman brings with him more than a decade of digital, social and GLC experience and expertise, and was most recently creative director for POS Malaysia. As part of the expansion of creative commerce capabilities across a wider region, he is joined by Soewarna in her new role as creative director of the Indonesia office. Formerly the associate creative director at ADA Indonesia, Soewarna comes with 10 years of experience and an intimate knowledge of the Indonesian market and will be responsible for driving overall creative excellence and new business in Indonesia.

In a bid to offer sharper, stronger, and more innovative creative capabilities, VMLY&R has also appointed another key senior creative, Loreen Eva Lim, as its head of integrated creative services. Lim brings with her almost 20 years of production experience, most recently as head of content partnerships at MBCS. She will also be responsible for streamlining and optimising the agency’s creative services delivery, project management and boosting creative capabilities with innovation and tech.

Pirinyuang said that this new team of hires supercharges VMLY&R's creative and specialist capabilities across all disciplines of the brand customer and commerce journey. 

VMLY&R Malaysia's CEO Kenni Loh, said, "We are thrilled to welcome this dynamic cohort of creative minds to our burgeoning team. In an era, which calls for brand and customer experiences to be seamlessly intertwined with commerce, their talents will undoubtedly drive innovation and elevate the connected experiences we craft for our clients."

He added that Malaysia, with its rich tapestry of cultures and progressive digital landscape, offers a fertile ground for creative exploration. "The future of BX, CX and commerce is bright and with our reinforced creative team, we are more ready than ever to lead the charge," Loh explained. 

Earlier this year in March, VMLY&R appointed Didi Pirinyuang as its chief creative officer. In her role, Pirinyuang leads the agency’s creative team in delivering solutions for clients, sharpening its creative culture and driving its strategy to boost the agency’s creative service offerings. She succeeded Chan Woei Hern who has joined VaynerMedia as its head of creative for the APAC region.

According to a statement from VMLY&R, Pirinyuang’s extensive experience spanning a wide range of consumer segments is an asset to the agency’s regional operations and feeds into its ongoing strategy to attract the industry’s best talent. Known in the industry as a "creative unicorn" for her standout work, partnering with clients such as Pizza Hut, PUMA and PETRONAS, Pirinyuang brings with her two decades of hands-on industry experience, including the management of creative teams, said the agency.

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