GOVT SG appoints new MD and ECD in senior management team refresh

Independent agency GOVT Singapore has appointed Phang Mei Jeng (pictured center) as managing director. Phang takes over the role from Alvina Seah, who will remain as a partner within the GOVT group of companies. 

Pang was most recently at Ensemble Worldwide and Media Brands Content Studio in Malaysia where she climbed up to the ranks of managing director after seven years. Pang has also spent four years in BBDO Proximity China as business director and has worked on a slew of regional and global brands such as PETRONAS, Pizza Hut, Visa, OPPO, Ford, Gillette, Braun and Toyota. 

In tandem, GOVT Singapore has promoted Kevin Poh (pictured right) to executive creative director. Poh has over two decades of experience and numerous local and international awards under his belt and has spent seven years with GOVT within two stints. His evaluation to ECD follows over four years of creative stewardship of brands such as Sentosa, Julie's Biscuits, PUMA and Asahi. 

Don't miss: Omnicom PR Group SG names new SVP and managing director

Poh takes over the role from Tim Chan, who will be taking on a new chief operating officer role in The Betterment Group, alongside longtime partners Leon Lai as CEO and Aaron Koh as CCO. 

New to the fold is Khoo Kai Qi (pictured left), who joins the agency as client services director. Khoo has experience across local and international brands in agencies such as Publicis, JWT, Tribal DDB Worldwide and most recently, Moon Rabbit Singapore. 

During her time at Tribal DBB Worldwide, Khoo was head of business, government and spearheaded the agency's foray across numerous government campaigns including Singapore Army, Ministry of Communications and Information, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Ministry of National Development and many more. 

“Change is the only constant in life, and even more so in our industry. Our move to bring in new blood and elevate stalwarts such as Poh to bigger leadership positions is all about keeping the agency’s energy fresh and dynamic," said Lai.

"At the same time, it allows the co-founders to spend time pursuing new opportunities for the group and its agencies, and there’ll be more exciting ventures in the pipeline we’ll share in the coming months," he added. 

The industry has been seeing plenty of big moves in the past weeks. One such move includes Omnicom PR Group appointing Mei Lee as its senior vice president and managing director of its operations in Singapore. In the role, Lee will oversee the agency’s Singapore presence, focusing on expanding its capabilities and client roster while driving OPRG’s growth in the market.

In addition, VaynerMedia's EMEA executive creative director VJ Anand is departing after five years with the agency. Anand started his journey at VaynerMedia in 2019 as head of creative, APAC as the agency's fourth hire where he partnered with Avery Akkineni, who was VaynerMedia APAC's managing director to build and run the office.

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