Stephen Mangham helms global role at content studio distillery

Global content studio distillery has beefed up its leadership team with Stephen Mangham (pictured) as global COO. Mangham spent 13 years in Singapore, first as Ogilvy group chairman before co-founding Mangham Gaxiola which was later sold to dentsu and renamed manghamgaxiola mcgarrybowen. He left in 2019 and returned to the UK, where he has been supporting distillery's global growth as a strategic advisor since 2020.

“I’ve been advising global CEO Steve Wheen for two years, and this role seemed a natural evolution. Distillery has a client list to die for and their future is very bright. I want to help them get stronger as they continue to rapidly grow”, said Mangham.

Meanwhile, it also appointed Esther Yue (pictured below) as head of operations, Asia Pacific. Yue is no stranger to operations, having led teams at Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO, dentsu, Craft Worldwide Asia Pacific and most recently IPG Asia Pacific Studios. She will be based in Singapore and will be supporting APAC MD Simon Hearn.

She said: “I am excited to embark on this new and exciting chapter with distillery, and look forward to adding my commercial operations management experience to the group’s established regional and global leadership and creativity."

Meanwhile, Hearn said adding Mangham and Yue to the team is a huge win, and a clear demonstration of the team's intent to make distillery a major player in APAC, and globally. "We’re growing our team and capabilities across all our offices, so having their experience to help build whats next will be invaluable to our success, and the impact we have on our clients," he added.

Hearn also told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that with both of them on board, his vision is to compete with the big creative players in APAC, and grow our operations outside of Singapore to key APAC markets. "With our US office opening earlier this year, we've built a 24/7 content production model, to offer clients a more agile and faster turnaround time. This global footprint will also enable us to support Southeast Asia businesses looking to enter the North America or EMEA markets, and vice versa. Mangham and Yue will be integral in shaping this for us," he explained.

Some of the new clients that have come on board include Google, Lazada, Autodesk and Okta. It has also been involved with video productions with brands such as Midea, Blazeclan, and Trafficguard, and picking up government work after being named to the WOG creative roster earlier this year.

Hearn was promoted last year after moving from Australia to join the company at the beginning of the company. "It's been a great balance of excitement, success, and challenges. We've had a really strong year to date, growing our client list and our capabilities, and delivering work we are really proud of," he said.

For him, the most rewarding part is that the team has doubled in size, and moved into its own shophouse, which is full almost every day. "We've been able to build a culture where people want to come into the office, even though they have the option to work from home. This culture and buy-in are critical to my enjoyment, our business achievements, and our future success," Hearn explained.

He has relished the opportunity to step up and build a team of diverse individuals, who he enjoys working with. "With Yue coming on board in APAC, and our plans for the next few years, I can't wait to see where we get to in the next 12 months," he added.

Alongside his promotion, distillery also promoted Guilet Libby to creative director after joining the studio from dentsu two years ago. It also elevated Czarina Miko Cabuyadao to customer reference director earlier last year, appointed Ashley Patterson as senior producer and hired Sofianna Ng as head of editorial.

Distillery opened its San Francisco office earlier this year. After investing heavily in APAC, the company hopes to continue its growth and has committed to promoting positive impact and helping companies harness the power of content. According to distillery, its specialist content business offers a round-the-clock production model for its clients to deliver scaled global content programmes, as well as help brands in the US enter and grow across the EMEA and APAC markets.