Barry Low

Global creative agency iris has recruited one of Asia’s leading creative talents Barry Low to be Creative Director of its China operation. Low, who joined in August, will leave his present role as senior creative director at DDB China to join iris’ Beijing office, where he reports in to iris’ creative director for the Asia Pacific region, Grant Hunter. He brings 25 years’ experience in a range of directorial creative roles gained at a range of the industry’s leading agencies including DDB, Ogilvy & Mather, Grey, Wunderman and Leo Burnett.

Low will be charged with overseeing all of the agency’s creative output for its China operation, which has offices in Beijing and Shanghai. He will be responsible for building iris’ creative profile in the region through the execution of integrated campaigns spanning above and below the line for iris’ clients, which include Sony Ericsson.

During his career, Low has created many of the region’s biggest brand campaigns including those for McDonald’s, Ericsson, Ford, Philips, Shanghai Volkswagen, Lipton Tea, Pepsi Tropicana, IBM and American Express. He has won a host of Asia’s most coveted awards such as DMAM Gold awards, a HK Kam Fan, a FAB International London award, a Certificate for Media Asia award and several Kancils.


Dirk Peter van Leeuwe

Red Hat appoints Dirk Peter van Leeuwe as Vice President, Red Hat Asia Pacific (APAC). Van Leeuwen will lead the company’s sales, marketing and services efforts in the region.

Van Leeuwen joined Red Hat in 2004 and was responsible for establishing Red Hat’s operations in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux). In 2006 he assumed responsibility for Central Europe and in 2008 added Eastern Europe. In Europe, Van Leeuwen was responsible for the general management of 47 countries with a primary focus on Sales Management. Under the sales leadership of Van Leeuwen, Red Hat saw its European customer base grow. He has most recently held the position of Vice President of Sales in APAC and Japan and has been instrumental in new business development and growing the business in this region over the last year.

Prior to working for Red Hat, Van Leeuwen was European Director for PlanetWeb Inc. and Director Northern Europe for SCO where he built up the sales arm of the business in Benelux and the Nordic region. He has worked in the IT industry for over 20 years and will report to Alex Pinchev, Executive Vice President and President, Global Sales, Services and Field Marketing.


Haresh Khoobchandani

Microsoft Advertising has recently strengthened its Asia Pacific Team with expanded roles and new appointments. Haresh Khoobchandani has become Chief Marketing Officer for the Consumer & Online (C&O) group in Asia Pacific. In this role, his key responsibilities will be to drive the business and marketing strategy for a portfolio of Microsoft consumer brands including Windows, Windows Live, MSN, Bing and Windows Phones brands across Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Korea. Mr. Khoobchandani brings with him a rich experience of consumer business and marketing leadership as well as a deep understanding of Microsoft. He has been with the organization since 1997, most recently as head of the Singapore Business and Marketing Organization. In this capacity, Mr. Khoobchandani managed all of Microsoft’s product marketing, public relations, branding, as well as corporate and social responsibility programs in Singapore.

Richard Dunmall

Richard Dunmall has been appointed Vice President, Microsoft Advertising Greater Asia Pacific and Americas. The expanded role, covering Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada, will see Mr. Dunmall become responsible for all advertising revenues generated across Microsoft Advertising’s entire portfolio of products, destinations and experiences across the geographies. Before relocating to Hong Kong in October 2008, he was the Senior Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA for Atlas and DRIVEpm, the then aQuantive-owned ad serving and media network business, which was acquired globally by Microsoft in August 2007. Other roles include CEO for MindShare Interaction UK, CEO of mOne UK, Sales Director UK for AdLINK Internet Media Ltd, Europe’s largest Third Party Sales House.

Kerry McCabe has been appointed General Manager, Specialist Sales Lead for Microsoft Advertising’s Greater Asia Pacific and America’s team reporting to Richard Dunmall. Mr. Paris will be responsible for developing and executing Microsoft Advertising’s incubation, brand, audience and performance strategies, leading and building the existing sales specialist team and growing the functional community across multiple geographies from Asia to the Americas. Prior to joining the team, Mr. Paris was responsible for Microsoft Advertising’s technology innovation and drove improved Platform and Ad Product offerings for both Brand and Audience businesses. He will be relocating to Hong Kong imminently.

Heidi Lau joins as the Head of Research for Microsoft Advertising, Asia Pacific. Ms. Lau will be responsible for providing leading-edge research tools, assets and content based on data driven evidence, and delivering market intelligence to the sales teams across the region. She will promote online as a mainstream ad medium, reaching out to the broader advertising community on the effectiveness, cost efficiency and ROI of online advertising. Ms. Lau has more than 15 years of experience in TV Audience Measurement (TAM), starting her career at AC Nielsen before moving to CSM Media Research (part of the TNS Group).

Jaclyn Yap has also been appointed as the Trade Marketing Lead for Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Ms. Yap will lead trade marketing strategies and activities including partner engagement, marketing communications, and branding in Southeast Asia, Korea and Australia. Her responsibilities include supporting the Southeast Asia sales force with marketing services based on robust research and deep market insights, helping them maximize revenues and grow market share, providing strategic marketing consultancy and support to advertising agencies and strategic accounts.


Tom Regent

BT announced the appointment of Tom Regent as president of Global Sales & Marketing, in charge of worldwide sales operations, bid management, indirect channels and marketing in BT Global Services. Tom will join BT on November 1, 2010 and reports to CEO Jeff Kelly. He comes from AT&T where he has led the company’s business in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa since 2007, based out of London. Prior to that role, Tom was Global Marketing VP for AT&T’s international operations after having worked in several senior staff positions in the company’s headquarters in the United States. He joined AT&T from IBM in 1999 to lead sales operations in the Benelux region and became VP of global accounts in 2004. The 40-year old Belgian citizen graduated from the University of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) with a Bachelor of Applied Economics and a Master of Business Administration with a major in International Management.

BT appointed Stephen Yeo as CEO of BT’s Southeast Asian (SEA) operations to be based in Singapore. In his role at BT SEA, Yeo will oversee BT’s business operations across Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia, leading strategy development and execution as BT expands in the region.

Before joining BT, Yeo was managing his own consultancy, S2S Consulting which assisted companies in growing their business in Asia. Yeo is a veteran in the technology industry with more than 25 years of experience and has been credited for being a pioneering member in building Singapore’s vibrant IT industry and promoting initiatives such as IT literacy for the masses to reduce the country’s digital divide. He has held several operational and management positions in the Singapore Government and the corporate sector and has held several board appointments over the last decade. Presently he sits on the board of NTUCLink and NTU Graduate Business School.


Cyril Pereira

EXEDRA Events has appointed Cyril Pereira as its Managing Director effective 1st August, 2010, who joins as an equal equity partner in moving EXEDRA forward.

Initially Cyril will lead the Asian Publisher Convention (APC) and its offshoot, the Publishers Resource Centre (PRC). As a truly regional business, EXEDRA's chairman, operational manpower and servers are based in Manila, while its holding company and managing director are Hong Kong based. EXEDRA events (Hospital Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Publishing Convention, International Storytelling Festival) are regional in scope and cycle through different Asian capitals annually.


Stephen Elop

Nokia hired the Canadian Stephen Elop as its new President and CEO. Elop’s history with Microsoft and Macromedia/Adobe – in particular - should prepare him well for this challenge, although it will also be incumbent on him to keep growing Nokia’s core handset business, a market he is as yet largely unfamiliar with. Balancing this requirement with the need to move Nokia forward in new areas may prove a difficult challenge to manage effectively.


Carter Lusher

Independent technology analyst, Ovum, has reinforced its position as a top-tier industry analyst organization with the appointment of Carter Lusher as research fellow and chief analyst for enterprise applications ecosystems. Carter, an internationally renowned industry name, brings a wealth of experience to the role. He was director of corporate analyst relations at Hewlett-Packard, where he worked to enhance analyst understanding of the company and its leadership role in the IT industry; he also founded SageCircle, providing technology vendors with insights and applications for working closely with IT and telecommunications industry analysts. Prior to this he was a research fellow at Gartner, which twice named him Analyst of the Year. Carter will be based at Ovum’s new Silicon Valley office in Redwood City.


T-Systems appoints Michael Hering Vice President of ICT Operations in Singapore and India. Michael, who joined T-Systems as Vice President for ICT Service Delivery Management in 2008 was responsible for the quality of service and gross profitability of T-Systems’ top 60 customers. He brings with him over 28 years of broad-based experience in the information technology industry across account management, service management, service delivery and implementation functions. Prior to T-Systems, Michael worked with various multinational companies including Fujitsu Services, BAYER AG, Munich Re, and Deutsche Bank AG, taking on a wide spectrum of management roles within these organizations. His appointment was effective April 2010.