MANILA – Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) Philippines announced that Leah Besa-Jimenez from Smart Communications will become the new CEO of the country’s largest media agency on May 18, ending a year long search for a successor to Joanna Chan-Mojica.
Adobo broke the news last March that Chan-Mojica will be leaving Starcom after seven years due to health reasons. Ranga Somanathan, COO for Southeast Asia, aided the transition as interim CEO at SMG Philippines.
Besa-Jimenez brings to the table 20 years of experience. She was Group Head for the Media Convergence Group at Smart in charge of SmartAds, the country’s first real-time location mobile targeting service.
Prior to Smart, she was the managing director of Netbooster Asia during its rebranding to Movent in 2012. Group M acquired majority stake at the digital marketing agency, including it to WPP’s ever expanding portfolio in November of the same year.
A sought after speaker on CRM and digital marketing, Besa-Jimenez is a concurrent Board Member at the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) APAC Board, IMMAP (Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines) and I-COM Programme Board.
Leaving a legacy
“Joanna has spoken to me on several occasions over the past year to take a career hiatus in order to focus on her health. She will be leaving SMG in April 2015, after seven years of loyal, honorable service,” Starcom MediaVest Group Southeast Asia CEO and country chair for VivaKi, Jeffrey Seah, shared in an earlier story.
Seah also described Chan-Mojica as “a celebrated media person in the industry and the best example I have seen of a Filipino woman who has trained herself up, built the business, worked hard and earned the respect of all our clients”.
Chan-Mojica is the second CEO in the agency’s 15 years of business in the Philippines after Lizelle Maralag, who left to join GMA Network in 2010. She joined SMG in 2008 and started his professional career with JWT.
For the last reported year, 2013, Starcom billed US$614 million, up 35% over 2012, making it its 10th consecutive year at the top of Recma’s rankings.
