Halbroth appointed ECD at Commonwealth Thailand; Lever replaces him as ECD of Cathay Pacific’s Central Team at McCann Worldgroup

Thierry Halbroth has been appointed executive creative director for Commonwealth in Thailand, McCann’s regional agency hub for General Motor’s Chevrolet business. Halbroth and his family will move from Hong Kong to Thailand and he will assume creative responsibilities for the Chevrolet business on July 15.

Halbroth (left) will be responsible for developing innovative creative solutions for Chevrolet across Asia Pacific with a key focus on Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan. He was global executive creative director for McCann’s Cathay Pacific Central Team, based in Hong Kong, a position he held for seven years. Under Thierry’s strong and innovative leadership, the Cathay Pacific client and McCann have been recognized by the industry for developing innovative digital creative solutions that have impacted the bottom line.

Replacing him as executive creative director of Cathay Pacific’s Central Team is Martin Lever, who will relocate back to Hong Kong at the end of August after several years in the Middle East as executive creative director at TBWA/UAE where he was responsible for the creative output of three offices, managing a creative department of over 40 people.

Arriving in the UAE in 2007, Lever played an instrumental role in cementing TBWA’s footprint in this global growth region, winning key accounts such as Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and twofour54.

Lever (left) also won the first ever Cannes Lion in Film for the region for Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority ‘Be Still’ and created the Etihad Airways “From Abu Dhabi to the World” campaign – twice voted the World’s Best Marketing Campaign at the World Travel Awards. Under his creative leadership, TBWA become the UAE’s most awarded agency for 2012, winning gold from Cannes to the Clios, from the One show to D&AD and beyond. Before moving to TBWA Lever was regional creative director for the McCann APAC multinational account hub based in Hong Kong where he managed the APAC hub team for Intel. In the years prior to this, Lever was a Creative Director and Copywriter at McCann Hong Kong.

Said Vince Viola, managing director, McCann Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific’s Central Team): “I’m thrilled Martin has accepted the role to join the Cathay Pacific Central Team as we move into an exciting new chapter with CX. The media landscape and platforms we use to tell our brand stories have changed significantly in the last few years. We take much pride in our dedicated team’s ability to create the right stories for the right platform to the right audience.  Martin is a ‘master story teller’ and brilliant at telling those stories across truly integrated platforms. He will add enormous value given his past experience, and more importantly, what he has learned and achieved over the last seven years in the UAE. Thierry has been a fabulous partner for the past seven years. I will miss him but I’m thrilled he remains in the McCann family.”

Lever said: “Given my history (21 years living in Hong Kong), Cathay Pacific is a brand dear to my heart, both professionally and personally. To have the chance to help Cathay and McCann tell the next phase of the Cathay story together feels to me like an alignment of the planets. There is much to do in helping drive new revenues, build new loyalties and create new conversations for CX; and it’s a job that I can’t wait to dive into.”

Monica White, McCann WorldGroup Thailand’s CEO, said: “Thierry is an excellent addition to our team; he is dynamic, inspirational and has an adept understanding of the Asian consumer and markets, having lived in this part of the world for the last 20 years.”

In addition to his Commonwealth role, Halbroth will chair the McCann Worldgroup Thailand Creative Council.