Arrivals and departures MMHK Nov

The long speculated departure of DDB executive Tim Evill finally came to the fore in October with the former president & CEO but more recently MD of global clients announcing his departure from the group after more than 12 years of service. Announcing his resignation, Evill said he was unable to settle in his new position and admitted that the turned down several regional roles within the group. In April this year Evill was replaced by Richard Thomas as president & CEO. Evill's next move may be some time away, but for now he'll continue to reside in Hong Kong. Over at rival WPP, Simon Pangrazio, regional managing director for Burson-Marsteller North Asia, finally announced what many in the market already knew, that he was succeeding Bill Rylance as president & CEO of Asia from 1 January next year. Pangrazio, who has been with Burson-Marsteller for 11 years, admitted that the company was in need of a new direction and hinted a refreshed management team may soon be announced. Pangrazio will report to Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn and also takes a seat on the company's global leadership team. Rylance takes the role of Asia Pacific chairman & vice chairman for global development. Still with agencies and over at Ogilvy, Ken Mandel walked from his dual role of Neo@Ogilvy CEO and OgilvyOne VP of digital for Asia Pacific for personal reasons. OgilvyOne Asia president, Kent Wertime said a replacement will not be sought. Mandel has made no announcements regarding his immediate future but said he will serve out his full notice. Over at Yahoo!, Ivy Wong, senior director of global sales at the search marketing giant resigned from her job of nine years for a position with Television Broadcast's online arm, TVB.com, to expand its services overseas and build a mobile and IPTV platform. While still early days, Wong said she expects to have a business plan completed by mid-November. Wong, a founding member of Yahoo! Hong Kong was replaced by senior manager William Woo. The Sun Life Financial group reworked its marketing team, creating a Regional Strategic Marketing Group for Asia headed by VP strategic marketing, Asia, Rob Burr. Burr will be joined by TBWA\ regional CRM director Alex Daniel and SMG management consultant Alan Davies, most recently regional head of campaign & database management with AXA. Finally the past month also saw Nielsen//NetRatings rework its marketing team, splitting the marketing director for Asia Pacific and Latin America role into two parts with a marketing manager for Asia and one for Pacific to be hired soon. The move was sparked by the resignation of Elvira Lodewick. Deanie Sultana, marketing & communications for APAC will fill the Asia Pacific and Latin America role until a marketing manager for Pacific is found.