Jeff Cheong elevated to President of Tribal Worldwide Asia replacing Patrick Rona

Patrick Rona has announced he will be stepping down from his role as President of Tribal Worldwide Asia Pacific and Chief Digital Officer of DDB Group Asia Pacific in September. He will be replaced in Asia by Jeff Cheong as part of DDB Group’s leadership and succession strategy.

Cheong (left) was previously Vice President of Tribal Worldwide Asia and Head of Tribal Worldwide Singapore. His new title is President of Tribal Worldwide Asia. Rona has been with the DDB Group for nearly five years, first in EMEA as President of Tribal Worldwide and Chief Digital Officer, and then here in Asia Pacific since January 2012. He will take on a consultancy role with the Group for the remainder of the year working closely with Cheong and Tribal Worldwide Australia’s management to continue pushing the Tribal Worldwide brand forward.

John Zeigler, Chairman and CEO of DDB Group Asia Pacific, India and Japan, said, “Jeff is one of the most innovative talents in the DDB Group and a working-class practitioner. He has shown great energy to bring innovative solutions to clients across multiple markets. A hybrid between creative and technology, he has helped lift our work the last one and a half years as Vice President of Tribal Worldwide Asia as well as heading Tribal Worldwide Singapore. I truly believe he is the future of the Tribal Worldwide Asia network.”

He added, “Patrick has been instrumental in helping deepen our relationships with key clients like McDonald’s and Fonterra, establishing Tribal Worldwide’s centres of excellence in Asia, and leveraging talent across the region. He has been the first to groom Jeff as part of our succession plan. I would like to thank Patrick for his commitment and tireless efforts in growing the Tribal Worldwide brand in the region. We wish him every success going into 2015.”

In 2008, a year after winning the Singapore Airline business with TBWA, Jeff helped kick-start Tribal DDB Singapore. In a short span of five years, Tribal Worldwide Singapore has grown to 120 staff with expertise from user experience to e-commerce and a tech innovation team. Under Jeff’s leadership, Tribal has built an expertise on delivering innovative digital-to-life solutions for regional clients such as Unilever, McDonald’s, Changi Airport, DBS, StarHub, Ministry of Communication and Information and National Library Board.

Promoted to Chief Digital Officer in 2010, the Singapore office has now become the centre of excellence for technology and innovation in the region, if not the entire DDB global network.

Recently, Cheong led the Singapore office to launch the DDB i-store, featuring over 30 tried-and-tested tech solutions, which has been adopted as DDB worldwide best practice. He has been tasked to grow the best practices in digital creativity for the region across technology, social media, content and e-commerce platforms.

Cheong will be flanked by Tribal Worldwide’s leaders in the Pacific – Phil Dowgierd, Managing Director Tribal Worldwide Sydney, Darwin Tomlinson, Executive Creative Director of Tribal Worldwide Sydney and Richard Lloyd, General Manager of Tribal Worldwide Melbourne – each will run a really tight ship to better serve our clients’ needs to accelerate our momentum.

Cheong said, “We’re really excited about our APAC centres of excellence in Singapore, China, Australia – and with the Group’s acquisition of 22Feet Tribal Worldwide in India early this year – our clients can tap into these resources. I’m looking forward to making digital creativity our hallmark for clients in all key markets and across the region.”