Zeno Asia Pacific MD John Kerr returns to Edelman

Edelman has named John Kerr (pictured) as its vice chairman, digital and performance for its Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa markets. Confirming the move to Marketing, a Zeno Group spokesperson said that moving forward, Zeno Asia Pacific will be led by three managing directors in APAC. The individuals are Matt Collette in Singapore, David Lian in Malaysia and Papri Dev in India.The trio will lead the APAC business which has grown 35% annually on average over the last five years, the statement said. The spokesperson added that on the digital front, the agency is "actively recruiting senior talent" to join its team."We appreciate Kerr's many contributions over the last five years and are pleased that he will continue to be part of the DJE family," the statement read.Prior to the move, Kerr was global chief digital officer at Zeno Group, a role he took on in 2015 in addition to his leadership duties of Zeno Asia Pacific, reporting to Zeno CEO Barby K. Siegel. During his tenure, Kerr led Zeno’s efforts to globalise its digital strategy and offerings. This was by expanding its current capabilities, and increasing the depth and breadth of client engagements.Before Zeno, Kerr was managing director at Edelman digital from 2006 to 2012. He was tasked with setting up and growing Edelman's social-digital capability from scratch across the Asia Pacific region, according to his LinkedIn. He also held a stint at Text100 as its managing director for Singapore from 1998 to 2002.Kerr's hire follows a slew of others made by Edelmen in recent months. Just last week, the agency ramped up its team with more hires from the creative agency world through the hire of Aaron Phua as executive director and Remona Duquesne as chief strategy officer. Last year, it also bolstered its leadership team through the promotions of Delicia Tan and Jamie Read to newly created managing director positions in Singapore.In Malaysia, Edelman named Mazuin Zin as the managing director for Edelman Malaysia, as part of its effort to strengthen its regional communications marketing capabilities. Zin replaces Rob Kay, who has decided to expand his horizons beyond Malaysia outside of Edelman. In January 2017, the agency also appointed ex-Lowe + Partners senior executive – Rupen Desai. In Indonesia, Edelman named Tantri Kadiman-Beekelaar as head of corporate, and Geeta Ramachanran as business director, brand, in Indonesia.Read also:WE Communications hires Zeno Group’s Jeremy Seow as new MDEdelman appoints chief strategy officer for client programmingEdelman hires regional media operations director