KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — Ogilvy Malaysia announced the appointment of Michelle Ong as Executive Group Director reporting to Chief Executive Ogilvy Malaysia, Nizwani Shahar. Michelle has been tasked with driving the agency’s borderless creativity strategy, approach, and opportunities across key clients as well as elevating the diversity and business leadership capabilities across existing and potential clients.
Michelle joins the agency management team and will work closely with Chief Creative Officer Adrian Miller, Strategy Director Paul Gage, Senior Program Director, Edmund Quah, and the Ogilvy Leadership Team. While she will focus primarily on account management, her general management experience will be critical in driving the agency’s goals. Her role will also entail streamlining the agency’s internal processes, managing key department operations, and providing guidance and leadership to agency staff members.
“Michelle is someone I deeply admire and respect,” said Nizwani Shahar, chief executive of Ogilvy Malaysia. “With her experience, drive, and proven leadership qualities, Michelle brings not only vision and skill but also her wealth of experience in business leadership as well as general management. This is another huge step forward for Ogilvy Malaysia as we move from strength to strength, improving our talent density across all levels and departments, and creating a diverse makeup of senior leadership to chart the path of growth. I am thrilled to have Michelle back in the family and greatly look forward to working alongside her again.”
Michelle Ong, executive group director said: “Ogilvy Malaysia was my jumping off point in this industry and after a great adventure, I am so glad to return home to where it all started. Ogilvy is a strong network agency which has not only great brands, but also powerful, passionate people that drive creativity with the goal of inspiring brands and people for the better. I look forward to working with Niz and the leadership team to scale greater heights together.”
Michelle is an experienced and solid communications practitioner with 30 years of experience in building a diverse range of brands strategically and creatively. Michelle was recently CEO of Dentsu One Malaysia and prior to that COO of Leo Burnett Malaysia. Michelle has also spent time in Indonesia where she was the Managing Director of McCann Worldgroup.
For over 30 years, she managed blue chip clients and brands, among them Coca-Cola, Nestle (Nescafe, Breakfast Cereal), McDonald’s, Philip Morris, Dutch Lady, Samsung, P&G (Rejoice, Inner Science, and SK-II).
