Edelman Digital strengthens Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regional leadership team

Edelman has hired Martin Shaw as Performance EVP and appointed Stuart Edwards as COO for Edelman Digital Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APACMEA), both newly created roles effective immediately. Shaw (pictured left)  joins from Maxus, where he was head of Digital for APAC, and will take charge of Edelman Digital APACMEA’s overall paid media offer and key data, analytics and reporting functions. Edwards (right), former MD of Edelman Digital Australia, will ensure the regional APACMEA business is optimized in terms of both efficiency and integration. Shaw will be based in Hong Kong, Edwards will be based in Sydney and both will report to Gavin Coombes, president of Edelman Digital APACMEA.

“We are embarking on the adoption of a product strategy and the integration of Digital and Brand talent into consolidated teams and united leadership to accelerate the evolution of our business,” said Coombes. “This will put us in a stronger position to deliver lead agency remits and ensure all client work meets the demands of a changing market. Martin’s experience as a digital pioneer gives him a unique perspective on digital marketing’s present and future, while Stuart’s experience of quickly turning businesses around and regional point of view will help navigate the opportunities and challenges of each market.”

Shaw started his career in the UK as a TV buyer, working on accounts such as Ford and British Telecom. In 2000, he took the plunge into digital media at Mindshare UK, including award-winning work on Volvo S60, Nestle, KitKat and Kellogg’s. Shaw has developed specialist teams across several agencies in the UK including i-level, before stepping up to lead the successful rebuilding of OMD UK’s-50 strong digital department. In 2009, Shaw moved to China for two and a half years where he ran OMD’s business development, as well as the key Intel account, before settling in Hong Kong to head up Maxus’ regional digital team – first for North Asia, then the APAC region.

Prior to Edelman, Edwards worked at Profero, initially as the head of User Experience and Technology in Australia and then as managing director, Southeast Asia, where he built a multi-office, multi-million-dollar business virtually from scratch. Edwards joined Edelman Digital Australia as MD in 2015 and transformed it into the largest, most diversified and creatively adventurous digital unit in Edelman’s APACMEA region. Edward’s approach combines a granular analysis and management of the finer inner workings of the digital, creative, delivery and production operation to ensure it is both as efficient and as tightly integrated into the wider Edelman business as possible.