Ogilvy picks chief creatives for North Asia and ASEAN

Ogilvy has promoted Ajab Samrai (pictured left) and Reed Collins (pictured) to the newly created positions of chief creative officers for Ogilvy ASEAN and Ogilvy North Asia, respectively. Both Samrai and Collins join Sonal Dabral, chief creative officer and vice chairman for Ogilvy South Asia, forming a regional leadership team which reports to Ogilvy APAC chief creative officer Eugene Cheong.Following the appointment, Samrai will take on the overall creative leadership for Ogilvy ASEAN, relocating to Singapore. Prior to the move, he was chief creative officer for Ogilvy Japan, a role he took on in 2013.With his departure, Ogilvy has appointed of Doug Schiff as chief creative officer for Ogilvy Japan. Schiff returns to Asia after short stint in the USA at DigitasLBi as EVP/executive creative director. Before that, Schiff worked with Ogilvy for more than a decade – most recently with Ogilvy China as national ECD, according to his LinkedIn. .Meanwhile, Collins, who joined the network as chief creative officer for Ogilvy Hong Kong in 2013, will take on the additional responsibility as the overall creative leader for Ogilvy North. This includes markets such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. This follows the departure of Graham Fink earlier this the week, who held the position of chief creative officer for Ogilvy China since 2011.In a press statement, Cheong said that by moving to a market-focused structure, the agency’s top creative talent will be more focused than ever on providing the best ideas to clients. This will also help ensure that each Ogilvy office is producing exceptional work“Dabral, Collins, and Samrai are a dream team. As part of Ogilvy’s Next Chapter agenda, we are recommitting to putting our clients at the centre of everything that we do,” Cheong said.“We could not be more excited for Reed and his expanded leadership role for Ogilvy in North Asia. He has truly become a recognised creative force in the region,” Chris Reitermann, Ogilvy’s co-CEO for Asia Pacific, and CEO Ogilvy China said.“Samrai and Schiff are true Ogilvy giants. Ogilvy Japan saw exception growth under Samrai’s leadership and he has been one of our most awarded creative leaders in recent years. I am excited to see what he will do next. For Schiff, we are delighted to have him return. He’s exactly the kind of transformative thinker that will continue Samrai’s extraordinary work for that office,” Kent Wertime, co-CEO of Ogilvy Asia said.