Kevin Clarke Named Chairman for Thailand and Myanmar; Siwat Chawareewong and Niklas Stalberg Named CEOs for Thailand
WPP’s GroupM, the world’s leading investment management group, announces changes in its senior management structure. Kevin Clarke (pictured) will take on the role as GroupM chairman for Thailand and Myanmar. As chairman, Clarke will focus on cross agency initiatives to support the rapid move into digital media management and expanding the business in Myanmar.
Siwat Chawareewong and Niklas Stalberg are named Chief Executive Officers for GroupM’s business in Thailand. Siwat and Niklas have been with the group for several years operating as CEO and COO, respectively, for mInteraction, the digital business unit for GroupM Thailand. Their movement to the top of the GroupM organization underscores the importance of digital media to clients, and together they will inspire the organization to delivery of best-in-class digital solutions.
The Change will be effective from April 1st, 2017.
The new structure reflects GroupM’s certainty that the future of media-driven marketing is inextricably tied to data and technology. Key investments and partnerships over the past several years that support this positioning include WPP’s investments in Triad Media, comScore and AppNexus. GroupM also recently announced the global launch of [m]PLATFORM, an advanced technology suite of flexible media planning applications, data analytics and digital services. The platform will improve advertisers’ ability to use audience defining insights from hundreds of data sources to find and communicate with their consumers across all media.
“Kevin, Siwat and Niklas will play a big part in our future, and their appointment reflects our direction, values and ambition,” said Puneet Arora, CEO Singapore, Philippines & Thailand. “Our future is built on tech, data, talent and scale. Siwat and Niklas have done a great job building our digital capabilities and supporting our clients in Thailand who now spend an average of 20% of their budgets on digital media, a number that will only increase.”
“This is an important & timely initiative to build on our position as industry leader and deliver against our key goals as one GroupM; providing advantage to our clients & inspiring our people. Consumers do not draw lines or think in terms of which media is traditional or digital. The changes we are making reflect our commitment to staying ahead and ensuring all our staff have bright futures delivering against our clients’ needs which are increasingly tied to data and new technologies”, said Kevin Clarke.
“This is a very exciting time for our company, our clients and the overall advertising industry. Data and technology are quickly changing how our clients reach out to consumers. “I am very excited about the road ahead and looking forward to continue working closely with our strong leadership team.” Said Niklas Stalberg.
“These rapid changes comes with many challenges, but we have the strengths of our agencies and the largest pool of digital and communication experts that leaves us exceptionally well-positioned for the future, It’s our honor to bring all these advantages to our clients” said Siwat Chawareewong.