Change ahead for Wunderman and Microsoft

Singapore - Wunderman Asia has appointed three new senior staffers with two of the hires to concentrate on local Microsoft business in India, Korea and Japan, following the company's decision to terminate its regional APAC retainer with Wunderman.

Microsoft has confirmed that come July, Wunderman's relationship in the region with Microsoft will be in Australia and India, on retainer basis, as well as Korea on a project basis. According to Microsoft, the Australia relationship is "self managed" and not supported by a regional team and as part of its geographical reorganisation, India becomes independent of APAC.

In India, Wunderman Asia has promoted Pete Pierce to the role of SVP business director, based in New Delhi, having had prior experience with Microsoft at Wunderman Seattle where he was SVP, global group account director.

In Korea, where Wunderman Asia is looking to improve on its relationship with Microsoft, ex-Wunderman Irvine VP and account director, Evelyn Kim replaces GM for Wunderman Korea, Gregory Birge as the new VP and GM for Wunderman Korea.

Commenting on Birge's departure, Faggianelli said that "he never intended to stay" as Birge's role was "acting GM for Wunderman Korea" and "was put in place in the beginning to help find a proper GM". Birge would not comment on the news although Marketing understands that the latest Microsoft news may have had a bearing on his exit.

The third senior hire made by Wunderman Asia concerns the Singapore office with Michel Mommejat in the newly created role of regional network development director, responsible for coordinating Wunderman offices across the region, developing business with existing global clients and initiating regional new business. He will report directly to Faggianelli and will be actively involved in M&A developments as part of the agency's expansion plans across the region.

"Michel's appointment is the illustration of our strategic commitment to grow Wunderman network across the region and he will bring a strong experience of network management to reinforce and increase our regional capabilities," Faggianelli said.

"We are going to focus much more on local budgets of those three markets and local retainers which is why we are adding more people in Japan, Korea and in India and we have less people on the regional coordination," he said.