Hires & Promotions: Havas, IPG Creative, Media.Monks, Nippon India Mutual Fund

Joji Jacob appointed as Regional CCO for Havas Southeast Asia and North Asia

Havas has appointed Joji Jacob as Regional Chief Creative Officer for Southeast Asia and North Asia, while concurrently maintaining his pivotal role as Creative Partner and co-founder at BLKJ Havas Singapore.  

In his new role, Jacob will assume comprehensive responsibility for steering the creative direction, ensuring seamless integration into client engagements across the region. As the Chair of Havas’ APAC and member of the Global Creative Council, he will collaborate closely with council members to drive creative excellence across local offices and explore innovative approaches to storytelling while keeping meaningful connections at the core.  

With a distinguished career spanning over 20 years, Jacob has made significant contributions to renowned agencies in India and Singapore. Co-founding BLKJ in 2016 and joining the Havas family in 2021, BLKJ Havas has built an impressive client portfolio, including esteemed brands such as Great Eastern, The Republic of Singapore Air Force, the Economic Development Board of Singapore, JLL, and many more.  

Before BLKJ Havas, Jacob served as the Group Executive Creative Director at DDB for nine years. 

Speaking about the appointment, Rana Barua, Group CEO, India, Southeast and North Asia says, “As a network, our united focus is consistently directed towards delivering clients a meaningful experience through exceptional work, achieved by investing in the best talent. The region while culturally diverse shares the same purpose. Joji with his extensive experience and creative strength across the region, will enhance our overall creative output, and play a universal role in fostering positive momentum for all markets, building towards the goal of One Asia. This appointment underscores Havas’ commitment to cultivating top-tier creative leadership, driving the creative mandate and signifies a significant stride toward achieving our growth objectives in these dynamic markets.”  

Sharing his thoughts on the new role, Jacob expresses, “I’ve spent 20 years as a creative, with the last ten years spent leading a creative business. So, I step into this role not just with experience but also with a beginner’s mindset. Rana and I have been discussing the many plans and ambitions and my job is to help create the conditions that enable our people to make the best work of their lives for our clients, and I find myself at the right place and at the right time. Havas is a place where the entrepreneurial spirit thrives, meaning it’s not set in its ways. We can respond to a rapidly changing marketplace with agility which I find exciting. And Rana’s energy is infectious, that’s one bug I’m happy to catch.”

Susan Credle named first-ever IPG Creative Advisor

Susan Credle has been appointed as IPG Creative's first-ever Creative Advisor. In addition to taking on this newly created role, Credle will continue to serve as Chair of global integrated creative network FCB through the remainder of 2024.

Credle will also continue to report to IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky.

In the new role, partnering with creative leaders across IPG’s agencies, Credle will advance the culture of creativity at IPG, ensuring it is central in all the network’s work for brands.

Notably, she will be tasked with infusing creative perspectives into emerging offerings such as commerce and marketing technology solutions and ensuring that the holding company’s canvas for creativity includes new and emerging areas like generative AI and systemised creativity at scale.

Credle will continue to be a leading creative champion for the industry and assist IPG agencies in attracting and nurturing global creative talent. In the role, she will consult with IPG companies on their unique creative frameworks, advise on IPG’s global production solution, and bring a creative lens to IPG’s central leadership team.

On this, Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of IPG, comments, “Under Susan’s creative leadership, FCB has dramatically outperformed much larger competitors, being named the Cannes Lions Global Network of the Year, and the Festival’s North America Network of the Year for the last five years, which is an industry first. We wanted to create an opportunity for that impact to extend to the rest of IPG in a role that respects the importance of our agency brands and also positions Susan to inspire and influence the breadth of our company. This advisory role allows us all to tap into her unique expertise, her standing as an industry leader, and her interest in representing the power of creative ideas linked to our full range of capabilities, in the service of building our clients’ brands and growing their businesses.”

Credle adds, “I’ve been in the FCB role for eight years and I’m thrilled with where we are creatively. Our agencies around the world are set up for continued success, we’ve attracted and nurtured incredible talent, our business is strong and we’re confronting innovation and emerging technologies faster and more aggressively. I feel like I now have the bandwidth to take on this next challenge and help IPG continue to build this amazing culture. I look forward to working closely with Philippe and creative leads across the portfolio to accelerate growth for brands through great ideas.”

S4’s Media.Monks names Robert Godinho as Managing Director- Content for India

S4 Capital's operating brand Media.Monks has elevated Robert Godinho as Managing Director of Content India, fuelled by AI and its talent hub.

Robert Godinho has been elevated from his role heading the Media.Monks India production hub and will now oversee all operations as Managing Director, Content in India, to reflect an expanded scope.

Media.Monks India Director Poran Malani will soon leave the company.

Bruno Lambertini, co-CEO, of the Content practice says, “We view India as an important strategic part of our own growth. The Media.Monks India business is also a hub for creative innovation, so it is well placed to help businesses harness the huge potential of AI, now. The new era for the India business, under the stewardship of Robert Godinho, is rooted in putting these capabilities into the hands of brands, be that hyper-personalisation, workflow automation or virtual production.”

“We are building a Centre of Excellence for brands powered by insights, creativity, AI and innovation in India. This is not only to service our national clients but also international Media.Monks brands as well, through our established creative production and innovation hub. India has the opportunity to be at the epicenter of transforming brands by ensuring they are AI-friendly and AI-proof. We want to drive this by proving that AI is not a buzzword. We will do this by leading with it within our own business and handing on the learnings for clients to reap the benefits,” adds Godinho.

Nippon India Mutual Fund names Kaiyomurz Daver as Chief Marketing Officer

Nippon Life India Asset Management (NAM India), asset manager of Nippon India Mutual Fund (NIMF), has appointed Kaiyomurz Daver as the new Chief Marketing Officer.

Daver has an experience of over 25 years in building and leading high-performance marketing, digital, and corporate communication teams to align with business objectives and drive growth.

He will be responsible for building and executing the firm’s marketing strategy.

Kaiyomurz Daver joins from Bandhan AMC where he served the company as Head – marketing, digital business, investor awareness, and distributor engagement and has successfully managed IDFC AMC brand transformation to Bandhan AMC.

He has held several key positions in a career spanning over two decades. 

Previously, he was associated with Indianivesh Securities as a Head – Group Marketing and Corporate Communications.

Earlier, he was with Kotak Mahindra AMC for 13 years. He joined them as Head-Marketing and grew from an AVP grade to a Senior Vice President grade.