Havas has appointed Valerie Madon to the dual role of Chief Creative Officer for Southeast Asia and Creative Lead for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) business for APAC. Madon, who was previously Head of Creative Shop for Southeast Asia at Facebook, will be responsible for the creative output of all Havas agencies in Southeast Asia.
Prior to Facebook, she was the Global ECD on Shell Lubricants at JWT concurrently holding the role of Chief Creative Officer in Singapore. She started her career with digital agency XM Asia and has also had a long stint with Leo Burnett/Arc and later Publicis Modem.
“My time at Facebook as Head of Creative Shop for Southeast Asia made me realise that media strategy and the creative idea cannot be separated,” Madon said in a statement. “I knew if I were to return to the “agency world”, it has to be a place that believes in this too and is committed to making changes for a new creative process. All the recent headlines from Havas confirms this and more, and I am excited and honoured to be on this journey with them.”
She will work closely with the creative leads from the nine markets, where the agency has a presence to help advance Havas’ creative ambitions in the region by helping to build a solid creative foundation for the network through regional collaboration. Additionally, in her concurrent role as Creative Lead on GSK in Asia Pacific, she will be responsible for delivering world-class creative output on the key global and regional brands managed out of Havas’ GSK Hub in Singapore.
Madon will report into Vishnu Mohan, CEO of Havas Group, Southeast Asia & India and will work closely with Christian Pattman, the Executive Global Client Director of GSK at Havas APAC.
Vishnu added: “As we accelerate the implementation of Havas Group’s “Together” strategy in the vibrant and high growth ASEAN, we are delighted to have Valerie on board. Her experience in creative, digital and media disciplines makes her a natural fit for our differentiated approach of a client-centric unified Havas Village model.”
