Iris Worldwide’s founder to move to Asia

iris Worldwide’s founder and global CEO, Ian Millner, will be relocating to Asia this summer, as the  agency looks to increase its focus on the rapid growth markets of India, South East Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand),  Australia, and China.

He will remain heavily involved in all aspects of client business globally, spending time in all regions and working closely on key client accounts such as Sony Ericsson, Barclaycard, Shell, Hertz and adidas.

“The mature agency markets in the US and Europe are still just coming back to life after a lengthy period of doom and gloom. It is possible that these markets will never be the same again, and will lose their influence to the newer more dynamic marketing markets that are more open to risk, innovation and integration,” said Millner.

“We think that we can reproduce the sort of growth we’ve enjoyed in our most mature offices throughout Asia. This will be the making of iris as a real threat to the advertising-led global networks, and will be an incredibly exciting period in our history. We have some brilliant people, some brilliant client relationships and no outdated legacy systems, ways of working or remuneration methods to hold us back. We’re independent and we can be whatever we need to be, to be relevant and successful. What that is will almost certainly change as the markets change and clients’ needs change as a result. This is our secret.” 

The move follows the recent announcement that iris has created regional management teams for China, Asia, Europe and the Americas. “We need to have our leadership closer to what is valuable: our people, our clients, and our opportunity. This allows us to make better decisions, more quickly, and also to have a style of company that genuinely shares responsibility and benefit,” added Millner.

While Josh Thomson, former CEO of iris Concise will focus on Asia-Pacific, Paul Bainsfair will continue to lead European operations as regional CEO, David King will lead the new China region and Stewart Shanley the joint global CEO and co-founder will focus on the Americas.