Mun Tuck Wai to become Executive Creative Director of BBDO/Proximity Malaysia; Ronald Ng to move to BBDO New York

Mun Tuck Wai, currently Executive Creative Director at BBDO Malaysia, will assume full responsibility as the creative leader of Malaysia’s number one creative agency, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia, effective 1 November, 2009. He will succeed Ronald Ng who is moving to BBDO New York to become Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director.

Mun is one of Asia’s most respected creatives and the driving force behind many successful campaigns for brands like Hotlink, KFC, MINI, Mars, Fonterra and Pepsi. He has been instrumental in raising the creative standards of the agency over the past three years and continues to contribute to many BBDO/Proximity regional campaigns and pitches. Today, Mun remains as the only Malaysian ECD to win two D&AD Yellow Pencils, an extremely rare accolade, and creatives under his direct leadership have won every major award in the world. Closer to home, his young teams have won the Kancil “Young creative award” twice, a testament to his knack for mentoring great talent.

Jennifer Chan, Group Chief Executive, BBDO/Proximity Malaysia, said, “Iam looking forward to see the agency grow to new heights under Mun’sleadership. Mun has been groomed for this role since he joined us threeyears ago. He has earned the respect of our teams and our clients. Ifeel extraordinarily positive about these moves.” She said.

AddedChris Thomas, Chairman and CEO, BBDO Asia; “At BBDO/Proximity Malaysia,we liken ourselves to a petri dish – a breeding ground for talent that,over the past five years, has supplied some of the best senior managersacross Asia. This just shows that BBDO/Proximity means what we sayabout breeding and grooming talent, and planning succession well –something that agencies often talk about but don’t always do.”

Ng’stransfer from BBDO/Proximity Malaysia to its office in New York furtherreinforces the agency’s standing as a world-class agency that nurturesworld-class talent. Since he joined the Malaysian office in 2004, Nghas steadily improved its creative output, resulting in work that hasbeen widely recognised for its innovation and effectiveness at awardshows both locally and around the world.  For example, this year, TheWon Report ranked BBDO/Proximity Malaysia the 13th most awarded agencyin the world and its HELP “Wheelchair” campaign the 6th most awarded”Innovative and Alternative Media” campaign in the world. Morerecently, its print and poster efforts for Jeep won the Grand Prix atthe New York Festivals and Adfest as well as Gold at Cannes, Clio andOne Show, and a Yellow Pencil at the prestigious D&AD Awards.BBDO/Proximity Malaysia was also the top-performing agency across alldisciplines at last year’s Kancil Awards and the No. 1 agency at theDirect Marketing Awards of Malaysia. It also walked off with Gold atthe Asian Marketing and Effectiveness Awards.

“Two of ourstrategic pillars are securing an unfair share of the limited pool ofexceptional talent and finding ways to leverage it across brands,forms, cultures and borders,” remarked Andrew Robertson, President andCEO, BBDO Worldwide. “These two moves are perfect executions of thosestrategies. It’s very exciting.”

Said Ng, “I’m stepping intothe most exciting episode of my life, and leave with total peace ofmind knowing that Mun will be leading our creative efforts. It’s beenan absolute honour to be part of an amazing team in Malaysia.”

SaidMun, “I am humbled and flattered to be given this new role andresponsibility and welcome the opportunity to help take our agency tothe next level.”