Ketchum Singapore builds up senior management team

Ketchum Singapore has announced significant additions and promotions to the senior management team as it strengthens its position as the agency’s regional hub for south-east Asia.Under the leadership of John Bailey, Icon’s founder and managing director, Ketchum Singapore, the senior management team will focus on growing Ketchum’s best-in-class issues and crisis business across the region and Ketchum’s footprint across Asia Pacific.Judith Knight, a 10-year veteran with Ketchum Singapore and its predecessor Icon, is promoted from senior vice president to deputy general manager, assuming responsibility for the agency’s day to day operations in addition to continuing to lead a number of major client engagements.With more than 20 years of industry experience, Knight joined Icon in 2006 and played an integral part in its development into the largest locally-owned PR agency in Singapore before it was acquired by Ketchum in November 2013.Renee Bender joins Ketchum as senior vice president, creative and digital, spearheading the agency’s creative vision, digital and social media strategy and accelerating its development into Ketchum’s strategic design hub for the region. Bender was previously group creative director with the digital agency, Critical Mass, where she spent almost 18 years as creative lead on major accounts across FMCG, luxury retail, automotive and travel/tourism brands.Genevieve Goh joins Ketchum Change’s Asia Pacific team as consultant. Goh is an occupational psychologist who spent five years working for consulting firms in the UK in the areas of change management, leadership development and talent management.Jon Higgins, Ketchum partner and CEO, International, said: “The Singapore operation has been a stand-out success for Ketchum since we completed the acquisition, with consecutive years of record profitability and solid growth of key accounts, particularly with major network clients. Knight, Bender and Goh are outstanding talents and these changes position us for the next phase of growth, both here in south-east Asia and as part of Ketchum’s growing footprint across Asia Pacific.”