IPG Mediabrands has promoted Prashant Kumar to regional president, World Markets Asia, overseeing Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. This is an expanded role for Mr. Kumar, who will continue to be CEO of IPG Mediabrands in Malaysia. At the same time, the company announced that Daniel Simon has resigned as chief operating officer of both UM and Initiative Asia. There is no current plan to appoint a G14 head in Asia and Jim Hytner will continue to oversee all G14 countries for UM, and Eric Bader for Initiative . Previously, Mr. Prashant headed communication planning for Asia-Pacific, and helped develop UM's Global Communication Planning agenda. Under his leadership, UM Malaysia was Agency of the Year at the Malaysian Media Awards for both 2010 and 2011.
Republica has appointed Enrique Dussan VP-media services, a new senior-level position at the cross-cultural advertising, branding, promotions, digital and communications agency. Previously, Mr. Dussan was VP-director of communications planning at Wing /Grey Global. A 30-year industry veteran, Mr. Dussan has also worked as VP-media at MARCA, VP-media services at MFP&W/JWT; VP-group media director at Casanova Pendrill/Universal McCann NY and president of Koncecom/Ketchum Puerto Rico. He began his career in 1982 in the creative department of Atenas/BBDO in his native Bogota, Colombia and spent 11 years with the agency. In 1983 he moved to New York City, where he quickly moved up the ranks within BBDO, New York, and was eventually promoted to VP-media director for BBDO Latin America.
Mark Kortekaas has been named USA Today Sports Media Group's senior VP-digital. Mr. Kortekaas was most recently based in London with the BBC, where he served as general manager of its online technology group and, previously, as its controller for audio, music and mobile. Prior to that , he spent more than eight years as senior VP and chief technology officer for CBS Interactive, where he helped develop and launch their hugely successful "March Madness on Demand" video platform for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Before joining CBS, Kortekaas was senior VP-technology at Sony Online Entertainment, and also served as director of technology at NBC, where he helped manage the development of NBC's first online Olympics at nbcsports.com.
Liz Jones has joined Relativity Media as senior VP-digital marketing. With over 15 years of experience marketing and developing content, Ms. Jones is a seasoned veteran of both the mobile and entertainment industries, and Mobile Marketer named Jones one of the "Mobile Women to Watch 2011." Most recently, she co-founded Appency, a full-service marketing agency dedicated to promoting mobile applications with. Previously, she worked as a consultant and helped several media agencies start mobile and/or interactive divisions. In 2008, Ms. Jones became VP-entertainment and media for The Hyperfactory, a mobile ideas, media and execution company for which she was tapped to open and build a Los Angeles division. Prior to that , she spent 10 years at Twentieth Century Fox in both the Fox Mobile Entertainment (FME) group and the film division, where she founded Fox Mobile Studios.
Matt McLaughlin has been named chief operating officer of DoubleVerify. He previously was president of CUnet, a subsidiary of Nelnet, where he helped reengineer the senior management team and drive financial performance at the marketing services and media company. Earlier in his career, Mr. McLaughlin was the director of business and product technology at Advertising.com, where he drove seventeen consecutive quarters of growth.
Geri Ann Baptista has joined Hill & Knowlton Strategies' Northwest operations as VP, working across the corporate and technology practices. Ms. Baptista joins H+K from Starbucks, where she was senior manager of corporate communications, overseeing corporate social responsibility positioning. Prior to Starbucks, she served in a corporate communications roles at Washington Mutual Bank and Premera Blue Cross. She began her career as a broadcast news producer and also counseled product, service, marketing and social-innovation clients at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and Text 100 Public Relations. She also spent 12 years as a litigator and trial attorney.
