SHANGHAI – Following rapid recent growth, R/GA Shanghai has announced a continued strengthening of its leadership team with two key appointments.
Sook Ping Chow joins as Managing Director, bringing with her 20 years of pan-Asian industry experience in agencies including M&C Saatchi, Leo Burnett, TBWA, Wieden + Kennedy and, latterly, Factory Design Labs, whose Shanghai office she launched and built as MD. She will report to Jim Moffatt, EVP Managing Director APAC.
“Sook Ping has a keen strategic mind, and an impressive track record of growing agencies and their clients’ business in China,” said Moffatt. “She’s also equal parts grit and humour, so I can think of no better person to drive us forward here and look forward to working with her.”
Chow highlighted the agility of R/GA Shanghai and level of network collaboration as key factors in its success to date and what attracted her to the role.
“I’m excited to lead the nimble team of talented market experts we have in Shanghai, and looking forward to harnessing the capabilities of our 2,000 global colleagues,” she said. “R/GA’s unique structure and systems means we’re connected in a way other agencies talk about, but cannot deliver. It’s a way of working which is fast becoming essential, nowhere more so than in China.”
With a distinguished career including five years of multi-award-winning campaigns for Nike China, celebrated Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai CD,Terence Leong has also been snared as Executive Creative Director. He’ll report to Chow, and work closely with VP ECD APAC, Bob Mackintosh.
“Nothing focuses the mind like jumping out of a plane, and happily for us, Terence used to be a paratrooper,” said Mackintosh. “His ability to dive straight to the heart of any matter produces ideas that are authentic and meaningful. He’s a truly modern thinker and a natural leader who we’re thrilled to have onboard.”
“The Chinese audience is smart, affluent, knows who they are and what they want, so the days of adapting global marketing templates, talking down and trailing behind the rest of the world are long gone,” said Leong. “In one of the fastest shifting marketing landscapes, R/GA Shanghai stands out as an agency that doesn’t just move at the speed of culture but seeks to create it. I can’t wait to get started.”
