(Singapore: 17 August 2015) Jarek Ziebinski, Chairman & CEO, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific announced today, the appointment of Chris Chiu to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Leo Burnett Singapore. The appointment, which is effective as of 14 August, will see Chiu lead the agency in a dual capacity as CEO as well as his current role as Chief Creative Officer. Alongside Chiu’s announcement, Pawan Bahuguna, currently regional business director for Samsung, has also been tasked with additional responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer (COO) to support Chiu; while Rachel Xu, senior copywriter, has been promoted to Associate Creative Director (ACD) of Leo Burnett Singapore.
Commenting on Chiu’s appointment, Ziebinski said,” At Leo Burnett, we believe that creativity is the only competitive advantage in business today. The appointment of Chris, one of Singapore’s leading creative directors, to the role of CEO, demonstrates our commitment to anchor creativity at the core of our agency. As an accomplished creative whose work has been consistently recognized around the world, Chris has also held leadership roles across Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand where he clocked equal successes with local and global brands. Chris’s keen sense of business acumen and pragmatism towards overcoming challenges for clients’ business have been central to his continued success and are key qualities of a CEO.” Elaborating on Bahuguna’s appointment, Ziebinski said,” In his new role as CEO, Chris will be supported by Pawan, who has a solid track record of setting up and growing digital, CRM, B2B practices, data and marketing automation services in communications agencies for the most of his 17-year career in marketing. As COO, Pawan has been tasked to drive the synergy between creativity and operational efficiencies of the agency. Together with Chris, they would form quite a team to be reckoned with.”
Added, Ziebinski,” Leo Burnett has a history of successful creatives-turned-CEOs leadership including Judy John in Toronto or Tan Kien Eng in Malaysia. I’m confident that Chris, with his indepth understanding of Leo Burnett, the Singapore market and the capable support of Pawan and the team, will go on to chart a bright new future for the agency.” Said Chiu,” Needless to say, I’m absolutely delighted with the opportunity and am very excited about the possibilities. Leo Burnett has been a fantastic home to me for some 12 years across its various offices and I’ve seen firsthand, how they’ve continually put creativity at its core across the work and management. With regards to the Singapore office in particular, where I’ve been for 7 of the 12 years, I think the immediate focus is to do two things better. The first is to continue to create work that’s memorable and impactful. The kind of work we’ve done before on several of our roster clients. Work that people on the street talk about and work that gets results. They actually are one and the same. The second is to create an environment internally that efficiently delivers the first.
Again, it’s not just to be efficient operationally, but efficient in structure and casting with the purpose of creating the output we want. Memorable and impactful output that will have people talking.”
Chris Chiu, CEO & CCO, Leo Burnett Singapore
Chiu, a long-time Burnetter, rejoined Leo Burnett Singapore earlier this year following a three-year hiatus to set up his own agency, Ren Partnership. Prior to starting up the Ren Partnership in March 2012, Chris Chiu has had successful agency stints over two decades with JWT, DY&R, Batey Ads, Impiric and Leo Burnett - where he had spent 12 years working across Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
During his time at Leo Burnett, he was also a member of the Leo Burnett Global Creative Board and assigned with regional responsibilities over the creativity of Leo Burnett Southeast Asia offices, Chris has worked on major campaigns both locally and regionally. These include campaigns for brands like Mercedes-Benz (SE & North Asia region), MCYS, McDonald's (SE Asia), Samsung, P&G (AAI region) as well as Philip Morris to name a few. He's also served as Regional Executive Creative Director on P&G (AAI) and Citi-SSB (formerly Salomon Smith Barney) for the Asian region.
Through the years, he has created work that went on to pick up gold awards at Cannes, One Show, AdFest, Golden Drum and Spikes Asia, to name a few key festivals. Not to mention the gold recognitions at EFFIES and APPIES for marketing effectiveness. Along the way, Chris has sat on the juries of Cannes, Asian Spikes, London Internationals and New York Festivals and was Chairman of the Singapore Creative Circle Awards in 2008. In 2009, Chris was named Creative Director of the Year at the Singapore Hall of Fame Awards and in 2011, was listed amongst the Top 30 Creative Directors in Asia-Pacific by Campaign Asia. And in February 2014, Chris received a Senior PMC certification from the Singapore Business Advisors and Consultants Council (SBACC).
Pawan Bahuguna, COO, Regional Business Director, Leo Burnett Singapore
Bahuguna’s 17-year experience in marketing saw him working on some of the world’s top brands including IBM, Google, Yahoo!, Samsung, HP, P&G, AMEX, Cisco, Guinness, BP Castrol, British American Tobacco and Nokia. He spent the bulk of his career setting up and growing digital practice, CRM, B2B practice, data and marketing automation services in communication agencies.
Notably he was one of the first few in the marketing industry to drive marketing automation services adoption in communication agency and clients. He initiated the process that led to the eventual acquisition of a marketing automation services firm by one of the world’ largest advertising conglomerate. He successfully introduced digital production outsourcing in 2003 when many in the marketing industry struggled to understand how it can be implemented efficiently, effectively and profitably. Along the way, he has also incubated a number of successful e-commerce ventures.
He has served on the senior management team at OgilvyOne Singapore as regional business director managing one of its largest portfolios, IBM. Before that, he was the managing director for the Singapore division of global digital company, Blue Singapore (Recently renamed to Possible Worldwide). Amongst Bahuguna's many achievements, he spearheaded the growth of the digital division at Grey Malaysia to become one of the most profitable units within Grey.
Bahuguna has a diverse academic background, graduating with a Bachelor of Science, Master in Arts (prev), Master in Business Administration and diploma in E-commerce and multi-media.
Rachel Xu, Associate Creative Director, Leo Burnett Singapore
Xu started her writing career on the editorial front with a focus on travel writing and the arts where she penned articles for SHIFT, Japan-based international online magazine features creative culture, amongst others. She also took on a stint where she worked on the social media strategy for Fide Fashion Week, which is known for establishing Singapore as the third city in the world to have a dedicated men’s fashion week after Paris and Milan.
Moving into advertising, she spent her first year in the industry learning the ropes and intricacies of production in a local agency.
In 2012, Xu joined Leo Burnett and has since worked across the agency’s portfolio of clients including SK-II, Rejoice, Tide, Samsung, Allergan and UOB. She has played a pivotal role in the execution of global digital work for luxury brand, SK-II, including its global website revamp as well as the launch of the brand’s iconic Change Destiny campaign.
As an integrated writer, Xu believes that good storytelling transcends medium, culture and geography. She counts herself lucky to work amongst some of the most inspiring individuals in the industry who teach her something new every day and is ever-curious about people and the world at large.