Ray Pak

Ray Pak will join UM and Initiative Singapore as General Manager, being responsible for business development and building upon Mediabrands’ strong digital and specialty services to offer cutting edge marketing solutions. His remit will encompass creative, digital and branded content, adding great value to both current and new clients.

Ray has more than 13 years of dedicated experience in the advertising industry. He began his career as a copywriter and web producer, and over the years he has developed expertise as a media specialist. Ray’s work has spanned close involvement with both local and regional accounts. He joins Mediabrands from Starcom, where he handled regional and local accounts. Ray received the prestigious accolade of Young Media Professional, awarded by the Singapore Media Advertising board and won several awards for his advertising work in Singapore, with his last win at the Singapore Media Awards for Best Use of Search for Tiger Airways. Ray will report to Pat Lim, Managing Director of UM and Initiative, Singapore.


Ng Tze Yong

WATATAWA, the stakeholder engagement consultancy, has developed a new offering which helps companies integrate Corporate Responsibility into their business strategy and operations.

The Singapore-based firm has hired former journalist Ng Tze Yong to work with the WATATAWA leadership team in delivering these new solutions. The move comes as companies in Asia are realising that effective corporate responsibility is as much about how a company makes its profits as about how it spends them.

Tze Yong joined WATATAWA in December 2011 from Singapore Press Holdings, where he was the Social Media Editor at The Straits Times and, before that, Special Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of the English and Malay Newspapers Division. The Young Journalist of The Year 2006 has reported on crime, heritage, politics, and on assignment from the scenes of major global disasters and conflict zones. His work and extensive volunteerism have seen him work on community causes in Kosovo, Lebanon, Kashmir, West Bank and the Gaza Strip.


Yean Cheong

IPG Mediabrands appointed Yean Cheong as Head of Digital, Asia. Based in Singapore, Yean is responsible for managing Mediabrands’ online media planning teams as well as leading the strategy and development of all digital media activities. Yean reports directly to David Cohen, Global Digital Head, UM.

Yean is a Singaporean and returns to her home country after spending the last few years working in different roles in Australia. Yean joins Mediabrands from Aegis Media Pacific. As General Manager Digital, Yean led the Queensland Australia branch of emitch, Australia’s leading digital advertising and online marketing agency, delivering best practices and results for local and regional clients across online, search, mobile and social media. She oversaw the overall financial performance of the company, as well as key client and partner relationships.

Prior to Aegis and emitch, Yean was Head of Digital and Direct at Clemenger BBDO Brisbane. There, she led strategy and execution for all online and direct marketing creative campaigns, including web concept and development, as well as CRM, mobile and search. Yean was an avid driver of digital within the Australian marketing community, with regular speaking roles and tutored digital marketing courses at the Australian Direct Marketing Association.

Earlier in her career, Yean joined the pioneer team at the then start-up online travel agency Zuji, owned by Travelocity. During her time at Zuji, Yean supported the launch and assumed the role of Marketing and PR Lead of three websites in Singapore and Australia. She has also held positions at M&C Saatchi, Jurong Point and Sembawang Leisure, amassing her astute understanding of business and communication across industries, from both client and agency perspectives.

Yean takes over from Arun Kumar, who has been promoted to a General Manager role within the G14 cluster of Mediabrands working in the Benefits Bundles group including the Mediabrands Audience Platform (MAP).


Rachael Fitzpatrick

Akamai Technologies Pte. Ltd. appointed Rachael Fitzpatrick as Human Resource (HR) Director for the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region. Rachael is responsible for HR strategy and management, playing a key role in driving Akamai’s expansion strategy in the region.

Rachael brings with her a broad HR background having worked in the information technology, insurance and shipping industries. Her areas of expertise include merger and acquisition activities, benefits harmonization, market pricing and benchmarking strategies, as well as coaching and neuroscience in the workplace.

APJ is the fastest growing region globally for Akamai, therefore the company aims to continue to strengthen its human resources in view of growth in this region - driven especially by trends in cloud adoption, mobility, e-commerce, next generation media and social networking services. Internet connection in cities across the region is also improving at a rapid pace.

Based in Singapore, Rachael reports to Linda Pettingell, Senior Director HR Business Partnering at Akamai.


Nando’s has appointed Blugrapes as its social media consultancy following a closed-door pitch held in October involving several agencies for Singapore.

Blugrapes will be responsible for the conceptualization and execution of Nando’s year-end campaign focusing on social engagements and the incorporation of new store openings. This includes all related social media consulting and management duties such as strategy development, content creation, brand persona development, conversation management, media buying and application development. The role spans all of Nando’s social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.


Blugrapes is setting up local offices in Malaysia and is planning to expand into the rest of Southeast Asia and becoming a major player in the digital marketing space.

The company has been active in Malaysia since 2010, via its Malaysian partner, Better Sdn. Bhd. With a local office, Blugrapes is poised to meet an increasing demand for better localized social media marketing expertise and solutions. This includes building branded social media communities focusing on local nuances, happenings, trends and habits. Better Sdn. Bhd. (Facebook’s official advertising sales representative for Malaysia) will now provide Facebook media buying and campaign optimization capabilities for Blugrapes in Malaysia..


Mozat Pte. Ltd. announced that it has made this year’s Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the APAC region. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. Mozat’s mobile social platform now serves 16 million subscribers worldwide, with a strong presence in the Middle East and is currently widening its footprint in Asia Pacific. Mozat’s CEO, Dr. Michael Yin, credits product innovation, key partnerships with telecom operators and new market penetration with the company’s significant growth over the past three years. At present, Mozat has 15 telco partners and its mobile social platform supports more than 600 types of devices from major mobile platforms (Android, BlackBerry, iOS, J2ME, Symbian and soon, Windows Phone 7).


 MIS Asia’s 2011

Network Box was recently honored as one of MIS Asia’s 2011 Strategic 100 index inductees, the top one hundred ICT companies without favor for their place of origin or their organizational size. Each Strategic 100 honoree owes its place on the index entirely to how well it performs along the previously mentioned measures. It does not matter whether the company is based in Asia or not, or whether it is a small start-up or a 30-year old software giant.

As one of the world's leading Managed Security Services, Network Box has long said that the best protection against hackers, malware, and undesirable content, is to use a multi-engine approach, augmented by real-time PUSH updates, and real-time in-the-cloud technology. Network Box's multi-award winning Z-Scan zero day anti-malware system for example, uses state-of-the-art in-the-cloud technology, to help ensure new viruses are blocked in as little as three seconds from the time they are launched. No other anti-virus system even comes close.