Gavin Simpson to return to Malaysia with Ogilvy

Gavin Simpson is moving from O&M Hong Kong to take up the role of Group Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy Malaysia. Simpson, who has been ECD of the Hong Kong office since June 2007, will replace Daniel Comar who is moving up to a new role as Regional Executive Creative Director of OgilvyAction. The move is effective January 1st, 2010.

Simpson originally joined Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia back in 1991.After a 3-year stint at Naga DDB, Gavin returned to Ogilvy in 2000 andwent on to win Malaysia’s first Gold & Silver One Show Pencils. In2002, Ogilvy Kuala Lumpur was ranked the 10th most Creative Agency inAsia by Campaign Brief Asia, and Gavin was ranked the No.1 local creative in2002 and 2003. After 3 years with Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, Gavinhad stints at Y&R Malaysia and Leo Burnett Indonesia where hetransformed both agencies’ creative products. In 2005, Gavin joinedOgilvy & Mather Philippines and led the office to win 4As ‘CreativeAgency of the Year’ in 2006.

Ogilvy CEO Zayn Khan said: “After 17 years in the business, Gavin has won numerous local andinternational awards, including 1 Gold Asian Direct Marketing Award, 6Silver Spikes at The Asia Media Awards, 3 Silvers and 6 Bronze Clios, 1Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Cannes Lions, 3 Gold, Silver and 2 BronzeOne Show Pencils and several D&AD awards. Gavin is central to our plans to place creativity at the heart of ouragency in Kuala Lumpur and will work across the Group on our keybrands. He will work closely with senior creative leadership inAdvertising, OgilvyAction and OgilvyOne to help to realize the manycreative opportunities which we have in Malaysia.”

Khan praised the contribution of Comar: “Dani has been with us asExecutive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising sinceSeptember 2004. Trying to summarise Dani’s enormous contribution to ourbusiness is not easy. Under his creative leadership, we have made bigstrides in Malaysia in terms of business growth, creative quality andeffectiveness. Dani’s work with big brands has been recognized locallyand internationally and is often used as a benchmark of best practice.As a result, Dani is hugely respected by staff and clients alike andwill be greatly missed. The good news is that Dani, his wife Nicole andtheir two beautiful daughters will continue to be based in KualaLumpur!”