Current Asia names new CEO to drive business growth

Current Asia, a data-driven marketing and media agency, has appointed Aurelien Labonne (pictured) as its CEO. Labonne, who joined six months ago, has already been instrumental in adapting the business to the evolving demands of clients who are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate clear business results from their marketing investments.

Based in Hong Kong, Labonne reports to David Ketchum, founder of Current Asia and two other directors. He is leading a team of 10 FTE with an extended team of dozens of consultants, freelancers and vendors.

In conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Ketchum said the company's future direction is to continue to develop solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes for clients, and to align its compensation incentives with their success (as compared to just a fee-for-service basis). "We're leveraging our strengths in the financial services and B2B vertical sectors, rather than being generalists."

Labonne has helped Current Asia agilely navigate the rapidly changing agency environment. Under his leadership, the agency has deployed advanced AI workflows to make operations more efficient and ensure that client work is increasingly data-driven and automated.

This includes pioneering Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) to make brands discoverable on AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, alongside rapid 90-day pipeline sprints to deliver rapid sales lead generation results.

Labonne brings a wealth of international experience to Current Asia, having lived and worked across four continents and built a formidable track record of scaling digital businesses.

His previous achievements include serving as head of eCommerce and product management at Australia's THE ICONIC, where he spearheaded a remarkable revenue transformation from US$14 million to over US$110 million. He also co-founded the innovative talent marketplace theright.fit, scaling it from concept to over US$4 million in revenue before a successful exit.

Celebrating Labonne's contributions to date, David Ketchum, founder of Current Asia, noted: "Aurelien joined at a pivotal moment in the company’s growth. He quickly updated our methodology, team structure and processes, and laid the foundation for sustainable growth. Some significant client wins demonstrate the effectiveness of his approach."

Labonne shared his vision for the agency: "My goal is to level up Current Asia into a leading edge technology and data-driven platform that leverages the skills and experience of our team of strategists, and content, media, data and CRM experts. Ultimately our agency success is measured by our clients’ business success."

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