Jeremy Heng relinquishes CEO role at creative agency GOVT

GOVT’s chief executive officer Jeremy Heng (pictured) has confirmed to Marketing his departure from the agency end of June. He took on the role last year, succeeding Leon Lai, co-founder and group CEO of ALT Worldwide, the parent company of GOVT. Lai will be the interim CEO at GOVT.With GOVT, Heng’s remit was to solidify and grow the agency’s brand name. Speaking to Marketing, Heng said he is deeply grateful for the experience “working alongside the passionate and talented folks at GOVT” and “is glad to have played a small role in crafting the next exciting chapter for the agency”.“While I’m moving to pursue other professional passions, I wish nothing but the best for the agency and look forward to GOVT growing from strength to strength,” he added.Prior to GOVT, he helmed the role as chief integration officer at Havas Group. Armed with a career that spanned over 16 years on both client and agency sides, Heng is widely known in the marketing industry as a leader who is able to balance creativity and commercial sensibilities. Prior to Havas, Heng was deputy director at Singtel, where he led the segment marketing and communications team in the consumer group. Before that, he was in Asia Pacific Breweries, working on Tiger Beer, Heineken, Baron’s Strong Brew and Anchor Beer across Southeast Asia and Oceania.“I am very happy Heng is moving on to do something he is passionate about. In his one year in GOVT, I think he has taken in his stride to what it feels like to be an entrepreneur; definitely very different from his previous senior roles on both the client and agency side,” Lai said, adding that in a SME, the hustle and bustle and everyday discomfort is genuine in a start up environment.“I believe this experience has also reinforced for himself his future personal growth plans and ambitions. It doesn’t matter if he eventually joins another agency side, client side or even a start up, but I believe this overall experience not only gave him the checkbox that he has always wanted to tick, but has also shaped him to work for that inner something, the belief that he could do more and be more,” he added.“Heng is someone who brought the team an imagination of what GOVT could be, and leaves with a playbook on building the 2.0 for the company,” Lai said, adding that the team wishes him the very best in whichever steps he eventually decides to take.