Monks names new Southeast Asia managing director

Monks has appointed Scott McBride as managing director of Southeast Asia, effective immediately.

Based in Singapore, McBride will report to Kenny Griffiths, executive vice president, APAC at Monks, and work closely with Scott Spirit, chief growth officer. He will lead the agency's next phase of growth across Southeast Asia, focusing on client transformation and expanding its integrated offering across the region.

McBride brings more than 25 years of experience across Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, spanning agencies, creative technology, digital media and AI-enabled platforms. Most recently, he led demand and partnerships at Hoppr, where he helped shape the company's commercial strategy across programmatic, agency and brand-direct channels.

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Before that, he served as chief revenue officer at Creatively Squared, leading global revenue and enterprise sales, and spent more than five years at Shuttlerock in senior global leadership roles, including global chief revenue officer and global chief business officer.

Earlier in his career, McBride was chief digital officer at IPG Mediabrands APAC, overseeing more than 1,100 specialists across 13 markets. He also held senior leadership roles at Ogilvy, including regional business director for social, managing director of Neo@Ogilvy and managing partner for the Hong Kong Group.

"Southeast Asia is a highly dynamic region where brands are navigating rapid change across technology, media and consumer behaviour. What stands out is the ambition of clients and the speed of market evolution. Monks has a strong foundation in the region and a unique ability to combine creativity, data, media and AI-powered intelligence and orchestration to help brands move faster from insight to impact in real-time," said McBride. 

"What excites me most is the opportunity to help clients simplify complexity, connect capabilities more effectively, and unlock new opportunities for growth. I'm looking forward to working with the team and our clients to turn those opportunities into measurable business outcomes," he added. 

Griffiths said the appointment reflects the strategic importance of Southeast Asia to the agency's growth.

"Southeast Asia is one of the most important growth markets for Monks as clients increasingly seek partners who can help them navigate complexity, adopt AI, and accelerate transformation," Griffiths said.

"McBride's track record of building and scaling businesses across agencies, platforms, and technology companies makes him exceptionally well placed to lead our next phase of growth in the region and strengthen our ability to help clients operate as Real-Time Brands and deliver measurable business outcomes."

The appointment follows the departure of Munas van Boonstra, who stepped down as managing director of Southeast Asia earlier this year after four years with the agency.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE at the time, Monks said it was "grateful for all the contributions" van Boonstra had made and had already put a succession and handover plan in place to ensure continuity for clients.

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