The appointment will see Sarao responsible for strategy and innovation around human capital, talent acquisition and employee engagement for Dentsu Network in Asia Pacific, outside of Japan.
To be based in Singapore, she will report to Dick van Motman, chairman and CEO at Dentsu Network/Asia. Dentsu Network has 1,300 employees of different nationalities across across 22 offices in the region.
van Motman told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the move is part of Dentsu's expansion effort in the region and also shows the agency's commitment to both the region and to putting its people first.
He noted that as clients are more serious about Asia-Pacific, so Dentsu is gearing up to meet their expectations with the right talent.
With 20 years of experience in human resources and talent development, Sarao was most recently part of a leadership coaching and consulting business in Singapore.
She previously spent close to four years at Aegis Media as regional HR director APAC, with prior regional roles including vice president human resources Asia Pacific at CNBC Asia as well as director of human resources at ESPN STAR Sports India.
She will play a key role at Dentsu Network/Asia, driving the agenda of human capital development with the leadership team as part of the regional management council, according to the agency.
Her responsibilities will include defining and evolving strategies linked to Dentsu’s culture, performance management, employee satisfaction barometers, talent scouting and attraction and talent retention.
Japanese agencies such as Dentsu and Hakuhodo have seen many appointments and promotions of non-Japanese to senior positions in the past one year. Dentsu, in last year alone, appointed van Motman; Jimmy Lim as head of media; James Hawkins as MD at Dentsu Mobius. This year, it named Ted Lim as regional ECD.
For Hakuhodo, Tanner Nagib named as group account director and digital director, while Dinesh Sandhu was the regional touchpoints director-SEA.
The article first appeared on Campaign Asia
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