Mindshare Apac names Karl Cluck chief client officer, Kevin Rooney gets growth mandate

WPP media agency Mindshare has announced two senior level appointments for the Apac region, including South Asia.

 

Cluck is chief client officer

 

Karl Cluck, CEO for Mindshare Japan, Korea and Taiwan, has been named chief client officer for the region.

 

Cluck takes over from Roy Sudipto, who left the agency to become CEO of developing markets for WPP’s Tenth Avenue.

 

He will retain leadership over Mindshare’s Japan, Korea and Taiwan cluster, working with local MDs. He has been with Mindshare since 2006, when he joined as the planning lead on Unilever in China.

 

Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, AMEA and Russia/CIS, said, “Karl has been behind some of our best work for clients in China and North Asia, and has helped build a strong reputation and relationship with clients in these offices. His irreverence for all things official and conventional, and his ability to combine this irreverence with insightful media, market and consumer knowledge to arrive at creative solutions makes him a fabulous resource to have for any client-agency team. I look forward to him making a bigger impact, with more clients, in this new role.”

 

Cluck said, “It’s an incredible opportunity to work with Ashutosh, Gowthaman (Ragothaman) and the Mindshare regional team and market leads to drive our ‘Adaptive Marketing’ vision forward in Asia.  We’re lucky to have some of the most innovative clients in the world working with us — and I look forward to building on the success of the current team.”

 

Rooney named chief growth officer

 

Kevin Rooney, MD, m/six Asia Pacific, the group’s boutique agency, will also be chief growth officer, Mindshare Asia Pacific. 

 

He takes over from Wendy Walker, who left the agency to become CMO of Manulife in July 2015.

 

m/six, the boutique agency from GroupM, was set up in 2013, and has over 50 clients in four markets – India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Rooney has spent nearly 12 years within WPP roles across North America, global and Apac. 

 

Srivastava said, “Running a start-up agency is a difficult venture, and Kevin has proven with m/six that passion and agility can lead to an excellent track record for both an agency and their clients.  I am delighted to have him working with us again and look forward to having him bring this same spirit and mindset to Mindshare.”

 

Rooney added, “At m/six we have always been renegades, working at a tremendous pace, allowing our teams the freedom to come up with daring and challenging ideas, and then bringing these ideas to life for our clients.  The Mindshare values of speed, teamwork and provocation are ones that we have lived and breathed since our inception. Working across both agencies marks a significant change in the way that m/six will collaborate with Mindshare; from a resourcing and product development perspective.”