Levent Guenes exits Netflix, takes up MD role at corporate finance advisory

Netflix's head of creative partnerships and planning for APAC, Levent Guenes, has taken on a new role of managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at corporate finance advisory Yefira Group. Guenes (pictured) joined Netflix in 2019, and was tasked to lead the APAC creative partnerships and planning function, setting team solutions and building new creative frameworks. He was also an advisor to the creative marketing, marketing partnerships, brand and editorial and publishing teams, helping to achieve their creative intent and ambitions for any given brand partnership, title, portfolio and channel. Netflix has declined to comment on MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's queries. 

According to Guenes, he joins Yefira Group as he sees its founder and CEO, George Kypraios, building "an impressive consultancy of true experts", while never losing the personal touch and focus on building meaningful relationships. Guenes added that he may soon leave Singapore after being here for 10 years. "My heart will remain in Asia with a mission to continue building cultural connections between Europe and Asia, bringing these two incredibly rich cultural worlds closer together," he added. 

Prior to his time at Netflix, Guenes was with Havas for over 17 years, where he last helmed the role of APAC chief growth officer and North Asia CEO before he left. Guenes was primarily focused on driving new ventures, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships for Havas Group companies in the Asia Pacific region, while also driving the regional integration of Havas within the overall Vivendi Group of companies. He oversaw the group’s investment and strategic collaboration activities in the region, while also serving as Chairman & CEO for Korea and Japan. Before that, he was the Southeast Asia CEO for Havas Creative Group between 2014 to 2017, before the creative and media divisions consolidated. 

Guenes is said to bring to the group over two decades of experience in marketing communications, finance and regional leadership on the agency and client side across Asia Pacific and Europe. Kypraios said Guenes' strong track record and rich experience in the marketing and communications space in Europe and Asia will help Yefira Group to further manifest its services and offerings for its clients. "I am delighted to welcome a strong industry leader like Levent to the Group. His is a pivotal appointment as we continue to evolve and develop even faster in 2021 and beyond," he added. 

Kypraios added that over the last year, the team at Yefira Group has broadened its offering, focusing on deploying a variety of growth capital to support organic and inorganic growth, creating interesting partnerships and joint ventures across geographies, as well as continuing to bring together parties with different capabilities through merger and acquisitions. This is to ensure its clients are delivering the services they need to respond to the fast-moving industry dynamics.

Headquartered in Singapore, Yefira Group boasts specialisation in sourcing, structuring and executing transactions in mergers and acquisitions, asset finance as well as driving business development strategies in the Asian region. According to the firm, it has expertise in the marketing services and related technology sectors as well as the infrastructure space with a particular emphasis on the maritime sector. Yefira Group also has presence in the UK and Germany.

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