Ogilvy MY restructures under unified leadership, Nizwani Shahar vacates CEO role

Ogilvy Malaysia is undergoing a restructure under a unified leadership to be more cost efficient. As part of the restructure, there will no longer be a role for Ogilvy Malaysia CEO which means Nizwani Shahar, will no longer hold the CEO role for the Malaysia market. She has held the role for approximately three years, and has been a well known name within Malaysia's ad industry, helming roles such as managing partner of Ogilvy before eventually being promoted to chief executive. She is also currently the VP of 4As Malaysia. A+M has reached out to Nizwani and Ogilvy for a statement.

The move comes almost a year after Ogilvy Asia appointed Kunal Jeswani to the new group CEO role for Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia, succeeding Chris Riley. Jeswani was last with Ogilvy in India for the last 17 years. He has been CEO of Ogilvy India since 2015. Prior to that, Jeswani was the chief digital officer of Ogilvy India. During his tenure as CEO, Ogilvy claims that its India office has gone from strength to strength as a leading agency in the India market.

The integration journey of the agency in two markets was announced as early as 2021, along with a new organisational structure that sees a newly integrated leadership team offering cross functional operational management. According to Ogilvy, the new structure was aligned with a global direction to provide integrated solutions in the five core businesses of growth and innovation; advertising, brand and content; PR and influence; experience; and health.

Meanwhile, last year Ogilvy Malaysia also brought several notable hires on board. The company appointed Michelle Ong as executive group director to drive the agency’s borderless creativity strategy, approach, and opportunities across key clients as well as elevating the diversity and business leadership capabilities across existing and potential clients. Her role also entails streamlining the agency's internal processes, managing key department operations, and providing guidance and leadership to agency staff members.

Ong has 30 years of experience in building a diverse range of brands strategically and creatively. She was previously CEO of Dentsu One Malaysia and prior to that COO of Leo Burnett Malaysia. She was also MD at McCann Worldgroup Indonesia for a year and GM of McCann Erickson Malaysia for close to eight years. 

Another notable hire was Adrian Miller who joined as chief creative officer. Miller also works closely with the Singapore office to ensure that both markets capture the many creative opportunities presented by Ogilvy's network clients. 

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