Havas appoints director of marcomms

As part of its strategy to adopt a Havas Village model, Havas, one of the largest global communications group, has promoted Asiya Bakht (pictured) to the group’s director of marketing and communications for Asia Pacific.Havas Village is a client centric organisation that brings all disciplines and teams in the agency – creative, media and digital - under one roof and is the foundation of group’s collaborative culture. The Village mode aims to simplify the agency’s offering for clients by aligning resources, production, analytics and insights across divisions thus driving greater efficiency and effectiveness.The move follows the consolidation of marketing communications function in other key markets in Asia Pacific such as Australia, China, India and the Philippines.In her newly defined role, Bakht will be responsible for driving marketing and communications for all creative, media and specialist brands of Havas Asia, which include the flagship brands Havas Worldwide and Havas Media.As director of marketing and communications for Havas Asia Pacific, Bakht will drive visibility and awareness of Havas in the region and report to Southeast Asia CEO, Levent Guenes. She has served the network since 2010 and was, until recently, responsible for all marketing and communication duties at Havas Media APAC - the media arm of Havas.“We are delighted to welcome Asiya. Her impressive performance at Havas Media and understanding of the group’s culture played an important role in her selection as a communications lead, ” Juan Rocamora, chairman of Havas Creative Group, Asia Pacific said.“When we were looking for someone to lead marketing for Havas as a group we couldn’t think of a better person than Bakht,” added Vishnu Mohan, CEO of Havas Media Group Asia Pacific. “She is not only committed to Havas’ vision of meaningful communications and collaboration, but also shares excellent relationships with stake holders within the group.”Prior to joining Havas, Asiya has spent 12 years as a journalist starting her career as a broadcast journalist with ANI- Reuters India and working with trade publications.