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AppointmentsInforInfor, the industry cloud company, announced the appointment of Terry Smagh as senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Based in Singapore, Smagh will be responsible for growing Infor's business and driving customer success across key markets in the region, including Australia and New Zealand, Greater China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Korea.

Smagh brings a deep industry expertise in SaaS and data analytics to his role at Infor and has a proven track record in helping customers transform and grow their businesses across the region. He joins Infor following senior leadership roles at BlackLine, IBM, and Qlik, where he played an instrumental role in driving revenue growth opportunities and profitability.

A Singaporean at heart, Smagh also has an extensive understanding of local and regional market nuances and growth opportunities, having worked in regional roles for most of his career.

Smagh will be responsible for spearheading growth for Infor across a broad range of sectors in APJ, including industrial manufacturing, food and beverage, automotive, high tech, distribution and logistics.


AppointmentsYahoo
Yahoo announced key appointments to its team in APAC to support the accelerated growth of its ad tech business in the region.

Matt Farrington joins Yahoo as APAC Head of Partnerships & Investment. Sandra Lin comes on board as the new APAC Head of DSP Strategy. Kenneth Koh joins as Head of DSP SEA. The latest appointments come amidst growing demand for Yahoo’s ad tech product solutions and services in APAC as brands strengthen their digital marketing strategies with Yahoo’s pioneering omnichannel offering.

Matt Farrington, APAC Head of Partnerships & Investment, will drive Yahoo’s investment strategy in the region and oversee commercial trading relationships with agencies and clients. He will lead the development and delivery of Yahoo’s trading deal models in APAC, generating value for agencies and clients across Yahoo’s best-in-class unified ad tech stack and omnichannel platforms including iconic brands like Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Mail. Matt has previously held leadership roles in global media groups and major agencies within Omnicom and GroupM.

Sandra Lin, APAC Head of DSP Strategy, will oversee the strategy for Yahoo's ad platforms and unified ad tech stack, focusing on growing product adoption across the region. She will lead regional multi-discipline initiatives across Product, Positioning, and Partnerships. Sandra was formerly leading Programmatic initiatives at Google, where she played a key role in driving market expansion and emerging channel adoption.

Kenneth Koh, Head of DSP SEA, will lead the Demand-Side Platform (DSP) team for SEA. His remit will include managing Yahoo’s growing Platform Specialist team that helps partners in Singapore and SEA realise their full potential through Yahoo’s buying solutions powered by its omnichannel, unified ad tech stack. Kenneth was previously leading Platforms and Search teams at Google for SEA.

Terence Lim joins as the Business Lead for SEA, as Yahoo bolsters its team in the region to support clients and partners. He will work closely with partners and agencies to help brands future-proof their brands and marketing strategies and achieve their business goals through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack.

Natalie Phang joins as Data and Insights Strategist, SEA, where she will leverage her data strategy experience built across APAC and the EU, to help Yahoo’s agency and brand clients in SEA maximise their marketing investment for the cookieless world.


AppointmentsXenithIGXenith Infrastructure Group (XenithIG), a critical network infrastructure provider serving hyperscalers, data center operators, carriers, and enterprise clients throughout the Asia Pacific, announced the appointment of Luke Mackinnon as Chief Operating Officer.

Luke will be leading the strategy and execution of XenithIG's operations while working closely with the leadership team to accelerate the company's growth.

He has over 25 years of executive management experience in the hyperscale cloud, telecoms, and media industries in APAC. Most recently, Luke was the APAC Business Operations Leader for Data Centre Delivery at Amazon Web Services and President Director of PT Amazon Data Services Indonesia. He has vast experience in complex, large-scale digital infrastructure projects, notably in his previous roles as COO, CTO, and Group General Manager of Architecture, Innovation & Strategy of Vocus Group Limited (previously known as Vocus Communications).

Luke's experience from other senior executive management roles also positions him well to bolster XenithIG's organic and inorganic growth strategy. As Managing Director of 24Seven3Six5 Pty Ltd, Luke supported some of Australia's most significant private equity and infrastructure funds in their M&A activity. He also understands the journey from start-up to scale, having held founding roles in a number of successful start-ups like Planet Netcom, Fetch TV, and Vocus Communications.


AppointmentsCrimtanCrimtan, the global experts in intelligent lifecycle marketing for programmatic, announced the appointment of Andy Houstoun as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

As CCO, Houstoun will establish a new Commercial Services Division to focus on better supporting existing clients, as well as growing Crimtan’s creative and analytical functions.

Houstoun has more than 20 years’ experience in programmatic and digital, most recently as Group Operations Director at Crimtan, and previously as CCO of Larsson & Jennings, the Swiss made watch brand. Prior to this he worked at Venda, the world’s largest on-demand e-commerce provider, which was acquired by Oracle, where he launched and optimized online propositions for clients including Jimmy Choo, TK Maxx and Urban Outfitters. Prior to this, he was part of the founding team of Tesco.com.


AppointmentsStraiveStraive (former SPi Global), a leader in delivering technology-driven solutions for Content, EdTech, and Data to leading global organizations, has appointed Josh Blair as its Non-Executive Chairman.

Josh is the CEO and Co-Founder of EdTech innovator Impro.AI. Additionally, he is the Vice Chair at TELUS International, the Governance Chair at Neighbourly Pharmacies, and a partner at Esplanade Ventures. Prior to 2020, Josh enjoyed 25 years working at TELUS Corporation, most recently as Group President overseeing TELUS International, TELUS Health, TELUS Agriculture, TELUS Business Solutions, and TELUS Ventures.


AppointmentsVMwareVMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software, announced the appointment of Barry Chen as Vice President and General Manager of Greater China, leading VMware’s business development across mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan.

Barry is a VMware veteran, having spent more than ten years with the Company as the General Manager of VMware Taiwan. His leadership brought VMware Taiwan to be regarded in the industry as one of the world’s top IT innovators with multifold growth and consistently excellent performance results. A professional IT leader for over 25 years, Barry has extensive IT industry experience in both the enterprise and consumer markets. With deep industry insights, he is good at providing professional advice and helping on the digital transformation of local enterprises.

Prior to joining VMware, Barry served multiple years at leading network and software companies in various senior leadership roles across East and Central China, Taiwan, and Korea. He has also led Greater China and Asia for channels and developer alliances and services throughout his career. Barry has held additional positions that include Vice Chairman of the Taiwan Linux Consortium and is currently Director of the Cloud Computing and IoT Association in Taiwan.

Barry holds a master’s degree of Computer Science from Texas A&M University and has completed an Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School.