DDB Singapore lures Chris Chiu to fill chief creative officer role and announces two other senior hires – Melvin Kuek + Guillaume Pagnoux

As a culmination of a three-month management renewal exercise, DDB has added three top-class talent to its leadership team. The appointments include ex Leo Burnett and J Walter Thompson ECD Chris Chiu.

After a very short spell at J Walter Thompson Chris Chiu joins in the Chief Creative Officer role replacing the outgoing Joji Jacob who has today launched his own agency, Blk J with 3 other senior DDB Singapore staffers.

In other senior appointments Melvin Kuek joins as Managing Director and Guillaume Pagnoux joins as Chief Planner to become part of the leadership team helmed by David Tang, Neil Johnson and Jeff Cheong.

In an announcement, David Tang, CEO of DDB Group Singapore and Asia said, “Having helped set up Blk J, we’re bringing on the Champions Team at DDB for the next lap. Chris, Melvin and Guillaume are the best there are in our business and totally nice guys. They fit the ‘talented and nice’ DDB style and add to the pretty long list of top-class performers already under the DDB Group roof. It feels like we have a dream team of creative superheroes!”

The move comes closely on the heels of the hiring of eight key creative hires at DDB, including Benjamin Lee of ‘Mr. Miyagi’ fame as Social Media Creative Director; and four new creative leaders in Luis Fabra, Malhaar Rao, Josh Armstrong and Adithya Deepan.

“They add breadth, depth and weight to what is arguably the most formidable agency team in Singapore, with an unbroken track record over the past 10 years at the Effie, Cannes, Hall of Fame and Marketing Awards,” said Tang (pictured left).

“More importantly, it injects fresh and exciting leaders into the steady-and-ready DDB management team to do the most cutting-edge work for its clients such as StarHub, McDonald’s, DBS Bank, Republic of Singapore Air Force, SilkAir, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever and Whole of Government business.”

The agency group has in recent years offered highly specialised marketing solutions with its series of T-divisions in Tribal (digital innovation), TracyLocke (shopper marketing), Tasseologic (data-mining), Track (portal and e-commerce), TecEstate (3D AR for property clients) and Tango5 (social good).

Recently, it also launched a global tech hub, Equator, with the support of the Economic Development Board and opened its first satellite office in Temasek Polytechnic. Equator will serve 200 DDB offices worldwide and groom the next-generation creative tech talents in Singapore.

“We have been working very hard to offer innovative, specialised solutions – and deliver it with the rich diversity and the right chemistry of talents. Now, we have a dynamic team of the top-class practitioners to help our clients do the most effective, cutting-edge work”, adds Jeff Cheong, Head of Tribal Worldwide Singapore and Asia.

It is evident that DDB has invested in the best practitioners and especially creatives. This echoes a saying that David Tang once made, “We need more cows, not milkmen”.

“David stole that line from me, but now we’ve made it happen. We’ve turned DDB from the best Singapore agency to become a creative powerhouse and a global hub agency. Chris Chiu is huge for us as a creative leader and I’m really thrilled with the new talent – and especially the current, proven greats – we have with us”, adds Neil Johnson, Creative Chairman of DDB Group Singapore.

DDB Group will also house and support Blk J, the four-person agency team comprising of Rowena Bhagchandani, Joji Jacob, Khalid Osman and Lester Lee, in an exclusive business arrangement between DDB and Blk J. It signposts a collaborative business model in the industry of big network agencies supporting indie shops.

Photo (L to R): AnneMarie Leong (Creative Director, TracyLocke), Chris Chiu (Chief Creative Officer), Neil Johnson (Creative Chairman), David Tang (CEO, DDB Group Singapore & Asia), Jeff Cheong (Head of Tribal Worldwide Singapore & Asia), Melvin Kuek (Managing Director), Guillaume Pagnoux (Chief Planner)