GroupM Malaysia's CEO Girish Menon takes on new role

GroupM Malaysia CEO, Girish Menon (pictured), will be taking on a new role as vice president, client development, [m]PLATFORM APAC, effective October this year. Prior to the move, Menon held the role for over seven years.Meanwhile, GroupM APAC COO, Jon Thurlow, will take on the role of interim CEO for GroupM Malaysia, in addition to his existing responsibilities, while potential successors are considered. According to Mark Patterson, CEO Asia Pacific & chairman China for GroupM in a press statement, Thurlow will work with Menon over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition.“Of course, Menon remains in the family and closely associated with our Malaysia operations to provide continuity. Our company is evolving and it is our imperative to infuse our leadership with fresh thinking on the challenges marketers face today,” Patterson explained.According to the statement, GroupM’s search for Menon’s successor will include candidates from a range of backgrounds that it believes “can add real value for clients”. Menon’s move to [m]PLATFORM reflects his desire to play an active role in expanding this offering, which is designed to help clients continue achieving their marketing objectives. This comes as consumer media consumption becomes ever more personal, Patterson explained.“Our [m]PLATFORM team and our clients in the region will greatly benefit from a leader of Menon’s calibre focused in this area,” Patterson said.“Working with GroupM in Malaysia has been an amazing experience for me personally and professionally over the past seven years. We have an incredibly capable and committed leadership across our agencies and specialist units. I am proud of what we have collectively achieved for our clients. GroupM in Malaysia has been a pioneer in the digital space over the past 10 or more years and I look forward to playing a role in the expansion of our [m]PLATFORM capabilities here in the coming months,” Menon said.The move follows the recent departure of GroupM Malaysia’s head of [m]PLATFORM Robin Bach Kolling, who was promoted to be the managing director of [m]PLATFORM in Amsterdam, responsible for the Netherlands market.Most recently in Singapore, GroupM appointed Regan Baillie as the managing director for [m]PLATFORM Singapore. In a statement to Marketing, a spokesperson from Xaxis said that Baillie will helm the role of MD of Xaxis Singapore for now while the agency looks for a successor. Baillie was appointed to the role in 2015 and leads the overall business strategy and operations as well as spearheading future digital development in Singapore.Earlier this year, Jenny Bullis was promoted to global chief strategy officer for [m]PLATFORM. In her new role, Bullis was charged with creating the strategy for the global roll out of [m]PLATFORM, ensuring that the data sets and the technology suite are the most powerful in every market in which GroupM’s agencies deliver media services.[m]PLATFORM is the recently launched unit of GroupM which unifies all of the company’s data analytics, technology and digital activation capabilities in one team focused on helping clients to reach their targeted audiences across all addressable media.