Stanley Ngai promoted to managing director at Maxus Hong Kong + Caroline Chan moves to GroupM’s Sports and Entertainment Division

Stanley Ngai has been promoted to Managing Director of Maxus Hong Kong. Ngai (pictured left) replaces Caroline Chan, his former manager, who is moving internally to join GroupM Sports and Entertainment (a wholly owned division of GroupM).

Over the last 4 years, Chan has been instrumental to business growth and fame at various industry awards, successfully transforming the agency to an integrated communications offering. The revenue and size of the agency has doubled in this time with offline / digital integrated teams, a specialized search unit and dedicated strategic planning resources. Some of the new business wins include 7-Eleven, Pandora, Maxim’s Branded Products, Hysan Development, Sheraton and Swatch Group.

Ajit Varghese, CEO, Maxus Asia Pacific, said, “Caroline has been a wonderful leader for Maxus and has led from the front in growing Maxus to a sizeable organisation in Hong Kong. We wish Caroline the best as she decide to grow further within the GroupM family and hope she continues to keep one eye on Maxus’ growth”.

Melanie Lo, CEO, GroupM Hong Kong, added, “I am going to miss having Caroline as one of my Executive Committee members. She is not only a great agency leader, but also a very supportive senior member of my Hong Kong management team. I do look forward to seeing her continue to contribute to our business in her new role as well. The Hong Kong media market has changed a lot in the past few years, and is now ready for meaningful content opportunities like the ones Caroline will be focused on developing. With Caroline’s deep understanding of the market, she will be able to open up new opportunities for our clients leveraging on GroupM Sports and Entertainment’s cross market experiences.”

Chan(pictured left) will be now report to Josh Black, head of GroupM Content across the Asia Pacific region, and her responsibilities will be to grow the GroupM Sports and Entertainment business in North Asia through rights partnerships, strategic alliances and working with key players in the market to create new streams of revenue growth which is a key focus area for GroupM Sports and Entertainment in 2015 and beyond.

Black said, “Everyone wants to get into markets like China and Taiwan but very few rights holders and brands truly understand the market to make it work.  Off the back of our media planning and buying business we have been able to create the infrastructure and relationships we need to get ourselves into the right place, and then it’s about hiring smart people that really understand what we do, who then go and execute and leverage our existing scale.  Putting Caroline into a role focused on North Asia will accelerate our business and drive even more focus which I am very excited about.”

Ngai joined Maxus in Oct 2010 as General Manager. Before that, he was the Business Director of Mediacom. In his 4 years at Maxus, he was working close with Caroline to build the teams, expand the service offerings and drive new business. As the ‘brand champion’, he leads staff CSR initiatives such as the Sedan Chair Charities, Banana Run and Dialogue in the Dark, making a social impact on the local area.

In his new role, Ngai will focus on building deeper client advantage and managing and growing the Maxus Hong Kong business. He will report to Melanie Lo, GroupM CEO Hong Kong and Ajit Varghese, CEO, Maxus Asia Pacific.

Ajit Varghese added, “Stanley has been a key ‘go to’ person for Caroline over the last four to five years and we all felt confident that the time had come for Stanley to take the reins and help Maxus continue to grow. He has been on the business leading Maxus clients for some time, so we know our clients are in safe hands”.

Lo further states, “Stanley has been with GroupM Hong Kong for 9 years now, and contributed a lot in his past roles. He has played a key part in the success of Maxus Hong Kong so far, and I am sure he can continue the momentum and lead Maxus to the next milestone locally.”