Ross Jackson and Chris Thomas appointed heads of jury for 2015 Asia Pacific Effie Awards

Asia Pacific Effie Awards, the region’s symbol of marketing effectiveness excellence, has named two heavy weights as the first 2 of 4 Heads of Jury for the 2015 Awards.

Ross Jackson is the Head of Brand, Product, Client Marketing and Cross-Border Asia Pacific.

He joined Visa in 2008 in the concurrent roles of Marketing Director for Southeast Asia and Product Innovation Marketing Director for Asia Pacific. He has also led Visa’s cross-border business and Marketing Analytics function in AP and CEMEA before his current role. Prior to moving to Singapore Jackson was Head of Cards for Westpac Bank, New Zealand.

His marketing and business career includes senior roles as Regional Director, BBDO in Asia Pacific; Managing Director of Colenso BBDO; Director of Clemenger BBDO New Zealand; Managing Director of Mattingly DY&R New Zealand; and Managing Partner of Euro RSCG Australia.

He holds an MBA, a post graduate Diploma in Marketing and is a Fellow of both the NZ and Australian Institutes of Management.

“Having judged the Effies in the past, I really appreciate the impressive standard and performance of the work produced and submitted in this region. I am honoured to be invited as a Head of Jury for APAC Effie this year and, most importantly, to contribute to the championing of marketing and communications effectiveness.” Jackson said.

Chris Thomas is the Chairman & CEO of BBDO Asia, Middle East & Africa and Chairman of Proximity Worldwide. Thomas entered the advertising business at Dorlands in 1984 and has since been leading the teams in the various agencies he was with, including Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Ammirati Puris Linas (APL) and Lowe Lintas, where he was the Managing Director.

Thomas was subsequently appointed Chief Executive of Proximity London in 2003 and in 2006, as the Chairman & CEO of BBDO and Proximity in Asia. As an advocate and strong believer of marketing effectiveness, Thomas’ leadership has also led him in bringing BBDO to be one of the usual names in Effies and notably achieved the APAC Effie 2014 Agency Network of the Year Award.

Thomas said of this appointment, “I am delighted to be a jury head for APAC Effies 2015. As an industry it is critical we continuously demonstrate the effectiveness and value of what we do. The Effies play an important part in doing just that.”

Commenting on the appointments, Awards Chairman Jarek Ziebinski said, “The Heads of Jury play an important role as guardians of marketing effectiveness in our region via their work for Asia Pacific Effies. I’m excited to have such highly-respected colleagues join me on the Judging Committee and look forward to stimulating exchanges with them on the best campaigns from this part of the world during the judging process.”

The Judging Committee will be joined by two more Heads of Jury which will be announced next week.