Next Digital appoints three senior executives in Asia and Australia as it continues expansion

Next Digital, part of the Asia Pacific Digital Group, has made several key executive appointments as part of its continuing expansion across the region. Newton Smith has been named Group CEO,  Vic Sithasanan as CEO – Asia, Stephen Smorgon as CEO – Australia.

Smith (pictured left) joins Next Digital after many years in the corporate sector, including senior leadership roles at IBM, Optus and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He most recently led IBM’s eCommerce outsourcing business across Latin America, Central/East Europe, the Middle East/Africa and Asia-Pacific, and prior to that was the CEO of IBM’s delivery operations in Philippines, managing operations with around 12,000 employees. Newton is based in Singapore.

Smith said, “Next Digital has strong capabilities in the digital marketplace with a track record of delivering value to our clients in Australia and across the region. I am very excited to be able to lead this next phase of growth as we build our business in Asia”.

Sithasanan (left) joined the Next Digital team in 2012 as part of Next Digital’s acquisition of the highly successful FutureLab business formed by Vic and Janet Teo. Sithasanan has many years of agency experience within the Asia Pacific region including his time spent as General Manager of Proximity (BBDO) Singapore and Malaysia. He is based in Kuala Lumpur.

“It’s very exciting to be part of an incredibly dynamic team at Next Digital,” says Sithasanan. “We have built a very successful results based digital agency business in our current markets and the teams will be integrating more performance-based solutions to our current offer. The momentum and energy is just off the charts.”

Smorgon (left) is a seasoned digital leader and strategist with 15+ years’ experience in a variety of digital leadership roles in both client and agency, including as head of eCommerce for online retailer Perfumania. He is also a judge of the International Webby Awards, the leading international award honouring excellence on the Internet.  Smorgon was previously Head of Strategy and Brand for Asia Pacific Digital’s eCommerce group, and brings a wealth of digital knowledge and strategy experience to Next Digital. He is based in Melbourne.

“I am extremely happy to be joining the team at Next Digital. I am looking forward to expanding our growth and capability in Australia as it’s an important part of our history and our roots. Our expansion into Asia will make the Australian business stronger and allows us to be more agile,” said Smorgon

The appointments come as parent company Asia Pacific Digital approaches an ASX listing in February. Asia Pacific Digital Chairman Roger Sharp said, “There are few remaining independent digital commerce and marketing groups with genuine scale in this region, and we are growing there both organically and via acquisition. Broadly half of Next Digital’s workforce is now based in Asia, and we see that ratio increasing quickly.

“Appointing and locating our Group CEO in Singapore and appointing a CEO for Asia reflect the importance that we attribute to the world’s fastest growing digital economy.  Further, by appointing a dedicated CEO for Australia we plan to preserve and enhance our already strong business in this important market.”