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Tom Simpson headshotOpera Mediaworks, the world’s highest quality mobile advertising and marketing platform, today announced a record third quarter for both its brand and performance advertising businesses with big spending on its programmatic platform as one of the key drivers of overall growth for its business in the region. Programmatic sales across global performance and brand advertising grew 112% year over year. Across Asia Pacific (APAC), 18% of all digital spend is driven programmatically, according to a Magna Global report and spend is expected to grow to an impressive 35% in 2017.

Seeing the growth and potential of programmatic in the region, Opera Mediaworks has also appointed Tom Simpson as its new Director for Growth and Innovation in the region. He brings over 12 years of experience in digital advertising and will work closely with the sales teams across APAC; responsible for aligning with the global team to deliver best-in-class capability on the company’s product and proposition. He will manage demand-side platform (DSP) relationships and new partnerships with agency trading desks (ATD) and data providers, while also building relationships with leading agency groups and advertisers across Asia, enabling the company’s growth in the region.


dataxuDataXu, a leading provider of programmatic marketing software, announced growth plans in the Australia & New Zealand region with the appointment of Michael Scaramozzino as Sales Manager, ANZ and Fay Koo as Solution Architect, APAC. Both Scaramozzino and Koo will be based out of DataXu’s Sydney office.

Prior to joining DataXu, Koo spent six years at Sizmek, with responsibility over advanced data products, including attribution, verification, viewability and data management. She will be responsible for collaborating with clients throughout the region to craft custom solutions and delivering integrated and cross disciplined projects to market.

Previously at Yahoo 7, Scaramozzino joins DataXu to focus on cultivating and strengthening relationships with agencies and brands.

DataXu’s continued investment of resources in ANZ will provide further support to its growing portfolio of clients


Mark TroseljSugarCRM Inc. announced that Mark Troselj has joined the company as vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Mark will be responsible for forming close relationships with SugarCRM customers, growing revenue and expanding awareness of the company's award-winning CRM across the region, with the company's regional sales team reporting to him.

Mark will also oversee SugarCRM's extensive partner ecosystem across APAC and Japan, and reports to Juan Herrera, worldwide executive vice president of sales at SugarCRM.

Mark brings more than 20 years' experience in enterprise software to SugarCRM. He was previously the managing director and vice president of sales, APJ at NetSuite, joining the cloud computing business management software vendor in 2010, where he led a team that delivered recurring year over year growth. During this time, the company was named as the Frost & Sullivan No. 1 Cloud ERP vendor in Asia and was recognized as a top 25 'Great Place to Work' under his leadership. Prior to NetSuite, Mark held executive sales roles at Mastersoft Systems, Dell and SAP.


Xaxis announced several key additions to its Indonesia operations, led by the appointment of Yunnita Avreda as Director, Xaxis Indonesia. The company also announced the hiring of Dian Jaya as Head of Client Development and the addition of Tejender Singh to the operations team.

Yunnita AvredaIn her new role, Avreda will be responsible for leading Xaxis operations in Indonesia, growing revenue and attracting new business, while managing a team of ten people with a view to double next year. Arshan Saha, vice president, Xaxis Southeast Asia, will continue to oversee the market as part of his regional purview. Prior to joining Xaxis, Avreda was Country Manager, Indonesia for mobile ad agency Big Mobile. In this role she significantly expanded the company’s Indonesia operations, leading new business wins for clients including Toyota, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Wings Corp and BMW.

Dian JayaPreviously, Avreda spent more than a decade in media, working at leading entertainment companies in Indonesia and Vietnam including FBNC TV, MTV Vietnam, FremantleMedia Indonesia and Amaardyo Pictura.

Tejendar SinghAvreda is joined by new Head of Client Development, Dian Jaya, who will manage existing business while providing support for new business. Within this role, Jaya will work closely with senior agency partners and clients, serving as an educator and evangelist for Xaxis’ programmatic buying solutions.

Tejendar Singh joins the operations team where he will manage all campaign trading and tracking. He will also work closely with the sales team performing pre- and post- campaign analysis.


Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and VICE Media, the world’s leading youth media brand, announced a global content partnership that sees clips from VICE’s award-winning content made available to Getty Images customers worldwide.

VICE, renowned for its distinct documentary reporting style and popularity among young people, brings its unique footage to Getty Images’ nearly one million customers in almost 200 countries, significantly expanding its global reach.

The Vice Media Collection launches with video clips from VICE’s archival footage, with clips from VICE’s owned and operated digital channels continuing to be added to Getty Images’ comprehensive video library of over five million assets.

Getty Images customers will have access to clips from stories such as Broadly’s, VICE’s women’s interest channel, documentary short spotlighting the living Kumari goddesses of Nepal, and Motherboard’s, VICE’s channel exploring the intersection of culture and technology, in-depth coverage of biohacking, as well as content from other VICE digital channels, with many more clips to come as content from VICE’s editorial line up continues to be added.

The live collection is available on www.gettyimages.com.au.


Adobe announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TubeMogul for approximately $540 million net of debt and cash.

TubeMogul is a leader in video advertising, with a single platform that enables brands and agencies to plan and buy video advertising across desktops, mobile, streaming devices and TVs.

Adobe’s acquisition of TubeMogul will enable brands to capitalize on the meteoric shift to online video and further strengthens Adobe’s leadership in digital marketing and advertising technology.

TubeMogul’s video advertising platform, combined with Adobe Marketing Cloud, will give customers access to first-party data and measurement capabilities from Adobe Audience Manager (Adobe’s data management platform) and Adobe Analytics respectively.

Adobe Marketing Cloud is the world’s most comprehensive and integrated solution for delivering exceptional digital experiences. Adobe’s acquisition of TubeMogul will create the first end-to-end independent advertising and data management solution that spans TV and digital formats, simplifying what has been a complex and fragmented process for the world’s biggest brands.

Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will commence a cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of TubeMogul for $14 per share. The transaction, which is expected to close during the first quarter of Adobe’s 2017 fiscal year, is subject to customary closing conditions. The potential financial impact to Adobe of this transaction is not reflected in financial targets previously provided by Adobe. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently. Assuming the completion of the transaction, Adobe believes the acquisition of TubeMogul will be neutral to Adobe’s non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2017. Due to the absence at this time of certain acquisition-related cost estimates and purchase price accounting, Adobe is currently unable to provide an estimated impact on future GAAP earnings.

TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson will continue to lead the TubeMogul team as part of Adobe’s Digital Marketing business.


Criteo, the performance marketing technology company, announced that the transaction to acquire HookLogic was completed on 10 November, 2016.

HookLogic strengthens Criteo’s performance marketing platform and furthers its efforts of delivering seamless and accountable performance across the consumer journey for a cohesive and personalized advertising experience. Already, many of the largest retailers, ecommerce players, and travel companies choose Criteo as their primary performance marketing partner. With HookLogic, Criteo will continue to expand its performance marketing business to brand manufacturers and build future performance marketing products.


arris
ARRIS International
plc opened its largest Research and Development (R&D) and operations centre outside of the US in Bengaluru, India.


The state-of-the-art facility hosts a combination of world-class engineers from two former ARRIS and Pace sites following ARRIS’s January 2016 acquisition of Pace. The centre promotes collaboration and the efficient development of advanced broadband and video solutions for the next generation of services, including Gigabit broadband, 4K TV, and Wi-Fi.

The new, multi-million dollar Bengaluru centre represents a strategic investment in high-value IP creation. With cutting-edge lab infrastructure, advanced test facilities, and 24*7 support for installation activities at customer premises globally, the centre provides leading design, development, and quality assurance programs across the vast majority of ARRIS global solutions.


Nirvik Singh High ResNirvik Singh, Chairman and CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific since 2009, will take on the additional role of Chairman & CEO for Grey Group's Middle East and Africa region.

A 27-year industry veteran of the global advertising and marketing agency headquartered in New York City, Nirvik has played a monumental role in the growth and development of the network’s comprehensive offerings across Asia.

Under his leadership, Grey Group Asia Pacific features among the leading communications networks and his trademark business acquisitions has been instrumental in the development of Grey’s digital and shopper offerings in the region. Nirvik’s passion and his trademark skill to strengthen Grey’s presence has earned him widespread accreditation as the key accelerator of strategic growth across the Asia-Pacific region.

His highly-regarded business acumen has led to numerous additions to the Grey network including; RC&M (Rural Communications & Marketing services) in India, Yolk (Interactive & Digital media network) in Singapore, DPI (Shopper), Star Echo (Marketing Services) and ArtM (Integrated Communications) in China, Vinyl-I (Creative Digital agency) in South Korea and nudeJEH (Advertising & Digital agency) in Thailand, amongst others.

In his newly elevated role, Nirvik will continue to work closely with Jim Heekin, Chairman and CEO, Grey Group, and Michael Houston, Global President of Grey.


charlesGroupM, the media investment group of WPP, announced a transition in leadership at MEC, a leading global media agency.

After nearly 20 years at WPP and 14 years leading MEC, Charles Courtier is stepping down from the role of Global CEO to focus on interests outside the company. Succeeding him will be Tim Castree who will lead MEC's 5,000 employees who manage more than $25 billion in annual advertising investment for blue-chip clients in 93 countries.

Courtier will continue as MEC's CEO through a transition period and step down at the end of the year, but continue with WPP through June, 2017. Castree will step into his new role in January, 2017.

Castree will be based in New York and will report to GroupM's Global CEO, Kelly Clark. He will work with MEC's global leadership team to implement the vision and strategy for MEC's client service excellence, product development and business growth.

Castree brings more than 20 years of experience to his new role, spanning creative, media and digital agencies. He served most recently as Managing Director of Videology in North America, where he created innovative programmatic video solutions for agencies, clients and media companies.

Before joining Videology, he was USA Chief Operating Officer for Publicis Group's Mediavest where he led work for major clients including American Honda Motor Company, Mondelēz, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Sprint. Previously, he was Global Managing Director for Starcom MediaVest Group, where he led their global P&G engagement spanning 70 countries. Castree began his career with Leo Burnett in Melbourne, Australia and subsequently held roles with FCB, Ogilvy, and BBH.


lzrLazada, Southeast Asia’s leading online shopping and selling platform, announced to acquire RedMart, Singapore’s pioneer e-grocer.

By teaming up, both parties will benefit from each other’s cutting-edge technological and operational infrastructure, as well as an extended customer network. Led by its current management, RedMart will continue to operate independently post the transaction that is expected to be completed in Q4 2016.

RedMart’s fulfilment and technology platform has enabled a superior customer experience with the largest grocery selection in Singapore – from fresh produce to frozen foods – available for delivery quickly, within chosen two-hour delivery windows. The partnership will allow Lazada to benefit from RedMart’s strong fulfilment capabilities in Singapore. Furthermore, it will accelerate RedMart’s expansion into new product categories and the further enhancement of its service offering to customers by leveraging Lazada’s seller base, ecosystem of third-party service providers and advanced technological resources.

RedMart can expect to get serious competition soon in Q1 2017, when online retail giant Amazon make its entrance into Southeast Asia with its Prime delivery service alongside its AmazonFresh grocery services. Amazon’s plans for Singapore comes months after it pumped US$3 billion into its India business and a week after it introduced its Prime services in China.


The leading digital marketing and advertising agglomeration, Marketing Group PLC, announced the appointment of Adam Graham as CEO and Executive Director, effective immediately.

Adam has over 15 years’ experience leading and growing innovative digital marketing and advertising agencies. At The Marketing Group Adam will be responsible for increasing collaboration, partnership and synergies between subsidiary businesses to create a more effective and cohesive client offering. He also brings with him an identified pipeline of high quality, fast growth agencies that could be added to the Group.

Adam served as CEO of Weapon7, a digital communications agency within Omnicom’s BBDO, between 2011 and 2013. Prior to that he co-founded and served as Managing Director of Saint, the digital arm of WPP’s Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, which won Revolution’s and NMA's creative agency of the year Awards in 2011. Earlier in his career Adam founded the e-marketing agency 3w Media in the UK and was among the pioneers of internet radio, with the founding of iChoose Radio in 1998.

Adam joins The Marketing Group from Cact.us, a leading UK-based agency growth consultancy, where he is Managing Consultant. He is also Chair of the British Interactive Media Association and has previously been a council member of the British Advertising Association and the Institute for Practitioners of Advertising.


AnthonyWongAsia Pacific Effie Awards has appointed Anthony Wong, Worldwide Effectiveness Director at Ogilvy & Mather Group and Global Client Leader, Team Huawei of WPP plc, as the 2017 Awards Chairman.

The prestigious awards celebrate ideas that work and are organized by the Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (CAAAA) and Tenasia Group.

Throughout his career, Anthony has helped his teams and clients achieve best-selling brand and product launches across categories and borders, and he has won numerous Effie Awards and other marketing communications effectiveness awards. In 2016, for instance, Anthony helped Huawei become the first Chinese brand to ever win a Euro Effie.

In addition to his corporate roles, Anthony is an active leader in developing the marketing effectiveness agenda in Asia and beyond. He has spent a decade serving as Regional Judge, Finals Judge, Awards Presenter, Master of Ceremony, Expert Advisor, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Jury at the China Effie. He has been a member of the APAC Effie Committee since 2014 and also held the role of a Head of Jury at the 2016 APAC Effie Awards. Anthony also served on the Creative Effectiveness Jury of Cannes Lions 2016.

He won a lot of plaudits for his achievements in effectiveness awards and his deep involvement in Effies. Hence, in December 2015, he was promoted to be the Worldwide Effectiveness Director to drive the effectiveness culture within Ogilvy.

The APAC Effie Awards, in its fourth year, continues to champion marketing effectiveness in the region. Call for entries for the 2017 Awards will commence in the coming days.


mike1Concur, an SAP company and the world's leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, announced the appointment of Mike Eberhard as company president.

As former President of Global Distribution and 13-year Concur veteran, Mr. Eberhard will lead the company through its next chapter of growth and SAP integration. Mr. Eberhard joined Concur in 2003 and has held a series of executive roles, including Executive Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Business Development, and most recently, President, Global Distribution.

Mr. Eberhard succeeds Elena Donio , who has accepted a senior executive position at another company. Ms. Donio has served as President of Concur since 2014, following SAP's acquisition of the company. During her 18 year tenure, she has played an integral role in helping lead the organization through some of its most significant milestones – from its transformation into a cloud company to growing Concur's small business offerings.


The Hoffman Agency, a communications consultancy with roots in the tech industry, celebrates 20 years in Asia.

Today, the Agency projects global revenue at US$11.5 million from its offices in Asia, Europe and the U.S., with an average global growth of 9% since 2012. The largest percent of the company's revenue comes from Asia , the only U.S.- or European-born communications consultancy that can make such a claim, the Agency states.

Eschewing the conventional PR agency model that worships the P/L in each office, The Hoffman Agency has created a different type of global communications consultancy, one that cultivates collaboration across geographic boundaries.

Operating offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, Hoffman Asia Pacific supports a range of clients from tech and non-tech industries, such as LinkedIn, Niantic Labs, Uber, or Western Digital, to name a few.

Take a look at the Veterans Infographic for more information


quantifeed

(From left) Chi-Leung Fung, Audrey Wong, Dominic Chan, Graeme Brant


Quantifeed, a leading provider of digital wealth management solutions in Asia Pacific, announced the appointment of Audrey Wong in the combined role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, alongside several other key senior hires in Hong Kong and Australia.

Quantifeed's automated investment platform allows financial institutions to offer advisors and customers a digital wealth management experience under their own brand. Its software and financial models provides banks, brokers and wealth planners with a configurable solution to suit their wealth management objectives, and firms can reach hundreds of thousands of consumers quickly and economically. The platform holds portfolios of stocks, funds and other asset classes across all major global markets. Investing solutions can be based on risk assessment, life goals and thematic ideas.

Now the Hong Kong based company is moving ahead with regional expansion after announcing successful completion of a US$4.5 million Series A round in July.

Audrey Wong brings strong financial and operational experience, coming from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she was COO of Asia Pacific Equities in Hong Kong. Her career spans more than 15 years in the investment banking sector, including roles as CFO and COO.

Quantifeed's technology is rapidly gaining traction among financial institutions who are looking to offer an enhanced online wealth management experience for their customers and advisors via robo-advice. The company's highly scalable digital solution for financial institutions, has been designed to integrate with existing systems, reducing the time and cost of implementing new technology for corporate clients. The platform offers automated investing functions based on life goals, risk assessment and investment themes for consumers and wealth advisors.

Key appointments also include:

  • Graeme Brant, based in Sydney, is Senior Executive for Strategic Partnerships and drives the company's business in Australia. Graeme brings strong expertise in investment products and distribution to institutional, high net worth, and retail investors. Graeme's career in financial services covers over 20 years, with senior posts at Merrill Lynch and Macquarie Bank;
  • Dominic Chan, based in Hong Kong, will be joining by year end as a Senior Executive for Strategic Partnerships responsible for distribution in North Asia. He has over 16 years of experience from leading financial institutions including Standard Chartered Bank and JP Morgan; and,
  • Chi-Leung Fung, based in Hong Kong, is Senior Developer of Operations. Chi-Leung, a former Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, brings expertise in platform engineering and technology in electronic trading and derivatives.


"These hires demonstrate the company's commitment to helping wealth management businesses in Asia execute their strategy in a digital world," said Alex Ypsilanti, CEO and co-founder of Quantifeed.


Glispa Global Group strengthened its native advertising monetization business for app developers by recently acquiring Avocarrot, a native advertising supply-side platform (SSP). The platform’s specialization on native ad formats strongly complements Glispa’s focus on native monetization for app developers, and will integrate with Glispa’s native mediation platform Ampiri to serve inventory via both programmatic and non-programmatic means.

The four founders of Avocarrot met in their native Cyprus, and studied together in London, where they launched the company as a solution to the challenges they encountered when monetizing their own apps. The acquisition has brought 18 new team members to Glispa Global Group, based in San Francisco and in Athens, further expanding Glispa’s team of engineers, who already make up more than one third of the company, and proudly introduces the company’s four co-founders:

connoConno Christou (28) joins Glispa as Head of Strategy, Avocarrot by Ampiri. Conno studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. He founded and ran two lifestyle companies in London for 4 years, partnering with big brands in UK capital. At Avocarrot, Conno heads up strategy and business development, while holding key relationships with big publishers and DSP partners.

 

George EraGeorge Eracleous (28) joins Glispa as Head of Supply, Avocarrot by Ampiri. George studied Information Systems Engineering at Imperial College London, and previously worked as a software developer for Bloomberg, helping to update the terminal. George was a first cohort member of renowned accelerator Entrepreneur First in London and came top of his class for Machine Learning. Now, he heads the revenue optimization team at Avocarrot, where he is responsible for maximizing Avocarrot’s top line.

George MakkGeorge Makkoulis (29) joins Glispa as Head of Demand, Avocarrot by Ampiri. George studied Physics at Imperial College London, where he co-founded a social movement promoting coding amongst youth and as a result he was selected as one of the One Young World delegate speakers. Now he heads the demand team at Avocarrot, where he is responsible for scaling programmatic native inventory while building a stellar experience for apps that join the platform.

PanosPanos Papageorgiou (29) joins Glispa as Head of Infrastructure, Avocarrot by Ampiri. Panos studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London, and was involved in research for 2nd price auction modeling. He has worked as a software engineer for iGaming platforms, building algorithms for decision making. Now, he heads the infrastructure team at Avocarrot, where he is responsible for maintaining a high-throughput and low latency performance to support the high growth of business.


“This is a key time in ad tech for a powerful player to cut through the noise in the app economy. Glispa's strong advertising footprint across 187 countries and our leading technology in programmatic native monetization provides tremendous value for our existing and future app partners. We couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Glispa,” said Avocarrot co-founder Conno Christou.