Twitter names new managing director for SEA region

Twitter has tasked Arvinder Gujral (pictured), its current senior director, business development, Asia Pacific, to take on additional duties as managing director of Southeast Asia.Previously based in India, Gujral has moved to Singapore to take on the dual role. The role of managing director of Southeast Asia was previously held by Maya Hari, who was recently elevated to the role of managing director of Asia Pacific. In this new capacity, Gujral will report to Hari, along with Sharad Vivek, director of global business development, on the Asia Pacific business development side.The new role sees Gujral being tasked with growing Twitter’s business across the region, including strategic leadership and business planning, executive engagement with customers and partners, and cross-functional alignment to build up its presence. Meanwhile, Gujral will still be looking over strategic partnerships across Asia Pacific to enhance brands' customer experience on Twitter and increase accessibility of Twitter in emerging markets. He has been with the company for four years.Prior to joining Twitter, Gujral was the GM and business head of mobile internet services, new products and digital channel at Aircel, a Maxis subsidiary, for over four years. He led a team of product managers, analysts and digital channel experts in creating and launching mobile internet products, such as content, video and strategic alliances. According to his LinkedIn, Gujral was also responsible for driving Aircel's digital and social media strategy. He also worked at Geodesic Information Systems, CIBER Inc, iGATE and Infosys Technologies."I’m excited to take on this expanded leadership role at Twitter to show how our platform is the best way for people to see what’s happening in Southeast Asia and to talk about it. And of course, it is a great opportunity to work closer with brands, advertisers and partners to be what’s happening on our platform and connect them to our influential audience across Southeast Asia. With a more holistic approach from advertising to customer care to data analytics, my vision is to help brands and businesses to grow their regional audience and transform their customer experience through Twitter’s real-time communications platform," Gujral (pictured) said.Twitter recently partnered with 11 media and advertising agencies, including Dentsu, GroupM, IPG and Omnicom, to launch a year-long digital education programme #TweetToTheTop dedicated to up skill young media professionals in Asia Pacific. The programme covers five countries including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.Considering the increasing integration of social and digital into everyday lives, especially in Asia Pacific, #TweetToTheTop aims to help media agency professionals navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex landscape. The collaboration will offer participants exclusive access to Twitter's range of solutions and global advertising tech leaders such as Twitter's global creative director Jayanta Jenkins and Twitter's global head of planning and creative agency development Stacy Minero.“As marketers increasingly look to their agency partners for brand insights, relevant real-time messaging, and customer research, we believe that #TweetToTheTop will support media agency talents to develop their digital knowledge and skills, and ultimately benefit brands by creating the best campaigns tailored to their needs,” Simon Brockman, head of global agencies, Asia Pacific, at Twitter, said.“We believe that smart data, smart technology and smart collaboration are essentials in maintaining our strong business trajectory. Developing young talent who belong to the ‘multi-screen’ and ‘always on’ generation is critical to our success, and this collaboration with Twitter will help us stay ahead of the curve in technological advancement on the platform, and add value to our clients in creating meaningful conversations with their consumers," Leigh Terry, CEO, APAC at IPG Mediabrands, said.(Read also: Former Twitter SEA MD Parminder Singh resurfaces at Mediacorp)