PEOPLE

Regional - Omnicom Group has tweaked its Asia Pacific leadership team following the departure of vice chairman and Asia Pacific chairman & CEO Michael Birkin.

Malaysia - Foetus Group's in-house training programme, DDB University (DDBU) has launched with 24 participants selected to undergo the three-month course this year themed "Knock ‘em Out!"

Singapore - Ogilvy & Mather Singapore has restructured its creative department following the announcement that executive creative director todd McCracken will depart the agency at the end of the month.

Singapore - MTV has suffered two senior staff departures with its head of marketing and communications Joanna Tan and account director for Viacom Brand Solutions David Yang leaving the company.

Singapore - Qais Consulting has promoted Mark Newton to managing director, from his existing role as vice president of business development and digital media, and made two new hires as the agency ramps up for growth in the region.

Madison Avenue might be a world away from Bates 141 regional headquarters in Hong Kong, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for Digby Richards. Matt Eaton reports.

Guangzhou - Ogilvy & Mather China is continuing its senior recruitment drive, appointing Kawa Zhu as general manager of its Guangzhou office.

Hong Kong – Former Ogilvy PR executive Jennifer Doig has replaced Ranjita Menon as Turner Entertainment Networks Asia regional PR director, overseeing PR for all of Turner's entertainment brands including Cartoon Network and Turner Classics Movies.

Malaysia - Organised by KLue, Urbanscapes is shaping up to be an interesting experiment as an all-day user-generated creative arts festival where social media such as Twitter and Facebook actions shape the day's agenda.

Beijing – To strengthen the agency's offering to advertisers, Ogilvy has created a global effectiveness director role to develop more effective communications platforms that drives sales.

Role Description: Based in Singapore, you will be actively involved with regional Upstream teams on multinational client development and develop and deliver innovative services such as the digital communications that help differentiate Upstream and meet our clients' evolving new media needs.

India - Sun TV Network has appointed Ajay Vidyasagar as the new chief operating officer with immediate effect.

Who are Singapore's leaders of the future? We select the young guns from the marketing communications industry and explain why they will be the ones to watch in the years to come.

The recession has had many affects on the industry in Singapore. It has acted as a blowtorch on budgets and agencies, caused the "realignment" and "restructure" of many businesses, and unfortunately caused many people to lose their jobs. Essentially it has fired up the speed of change like no other market force could possibly do.

Singapore - Rapp Singapore has recruited Aimee Goldthwaite as regional solutions director and Tan Thuang Tee as creative head for the agency, on the back of recent global and local business wins.

Regional - Vikram Channa, vice president of content at Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, is heading to India as vice president of programming and regional head of production.

Thailand - Omnicom Media Group has appointed Bernard Sumayao as CEO of Omnicom Media Group Thailand.

Regional - Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide president and regional CEO Christopher Graves has been promoted to the position of global CEO of the PR agency network.

Malaysia - Media Prima Berhad and The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad have appointed Datuk Ahmad bin Abd Talib as its new executive director of news and editorial operations, as well as executive director of editorial.

Singapore - Former ZenithOptimedia Singapore chief operating officer Terence Chan has joined Carat Singapore as director and industry veteran Tan Lay Geok has been hired as the agency's vice president of client services.

Malaysia – Saumya Chattopadhyay, head of planning of Milk + Co Kuala Lumpur left recently to take on the same role at Rediffusion - Y&R, Mumbai.

Role Description: Based in Singapore, you will be responsible for overseeing all of the markets in Asia, develop and execute Skype marketing strategy/plans across Asia, including marketing through the web, channel partners, email, and traditional off-line advertising and activities.

Australia - Weber Shandwick has recruited former Microsoft marketer Matthew Gain to head its digital communications practice in Australia and boost its regional practice in Asia Pacific.

Indonesia - Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide has appointed Marianne Admardatine as managing director for its Indonesia operations and Pulse Communications, reporting to country head Renuka Jaypal.

Malaysia – Proximty's Nina Mohamed-Nor has resurfaced at Rapp as its new creative director.

Regional - The iProperty.com Group has made changes to its regional senior management line-up, and hired Denise Chu from Monster.com.hk and Matt Allanson from Realestate.com.au.

Singapore - Mediaedge:cia India has promoted managing director Shubha George as chief operating officer for South Asia.

Regional - ESPN Star Sports is in the midst of a realignment exercise which will see job redundancies made, although the cable broadcaster could not confirm exactly how many.

Region - OMD Asia Pacific's regional digital director Andrew Tu is believed to have resigned from the media agency, Marketing understands.