[Asia] Meet the Cmo’s

Arrif is the founder/CEO of Asia’s premiere online restaurant reservation service, Chope. Through Chope, diners can make reservations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere in the world. Chope helps restaurants use online booking channels, improve yield, and keep better track of their clients’ preferences. With almost 2000 restaurants and over 20 million diners seated, Chope is committed to making restaurant dining and discovery easier than ever before. Chope currently operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Phuket, Jakarta and Bali. Prior to founding Chope, Arrif worked in management consulting and private equity and obtained an MBA from Stanford.

Dr. Beh was appointed Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) on 1 December 2014. He also chairs the Boards of Directors of EDB Investments and EDBI. Dr. Beh was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Law from 1 July 2012 to 30 November 2014. Prior to the Ministry of Law, he was Managing Director of EDB from 1 August 2008 to 30 June 2012. He joined EDB in November 1992 and held various positions over the years, including leadership roles in the development of Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences industry cluster, as well as overseas assignments within EDB’s North American operations. In 2006 and 2007, Dr. Beh also held concurrent appointments as the Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council at the Agency for Science, Technology & Research, as well as the Director of the Ministry of Trade & Industry’s Energy Planning Division. Dr. Beh is a medical doctor by training and graduated from the National University of Singapore. He is also a Sloan Fellow with a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and completed the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School. He is a Board Director for Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd and chairs the Board of Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited. He is also a Board Director for AscendasSingbridge Pte Ltd, LucasFilm Animation Pte Ltd, the Human Capital Leadership Institute and Temasek Foundation Connects. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the University of St. Gallen, and also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation.

Bidisha has 25 years of cross-industry experience in marketing. A thought leader and strategic marketing expert, she has spent a significant percentage of her career in technology, retail and entrepreneurship. Her assignment portfolio includes a well-rounded mix of Fortune 500 companies as well as Indian early-stage start-ups. Bidisha’s experience includes assignments in India as well as across Asia Pacific. Starting off her career in advertising with Lowe Lintas, on the Unilever business, she moved to Compaq Computers, spearheading the launch of the Compaq Presario in India. From there, she moved on to an illustrious stint with Intel Corporation in India and APAC region, overseeing Consumer Marketing as well as Retail Programs. Later, she joined Google India in the early days when the internet giant was setting up operations in India and was responsible for marketing of search and mobile products. From technology, she then switched categories to move into retail, joining India’s largest coffee chain, Café Coffee Day, and spearheading their growth and distribution. In her role as Marketing President, she led the exceedingly well-crafted identity change exercise across 1600 cafes in 216 cities of India. Bidisha got bitten by the entrepreneurship bug and started advising early stage start-ups, becoming an independent marketing advisor for companies in the various industries. She then made a return to the Coffee Day Group, Asia’s largest fully integrated coffee conglomerate, as Group President Marketing. She spearheaded the company going for their first IPO in 2015 and used to lead the marketing functions for the group’s various business verticals including coffee, logistics, SEZ and financial services. In December 2016, Bidisha joined Schneider Electric as a Chief Marketing Officer.

Erica Kerner is Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Tiffany & Co. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of Tiffany’s marketing and communications planning, strategy and implementation across all retail channels and all Asia Pacific countries. She held a similar position at Ralph Lauren prior to joining Tiffany in 2013 and brings to her role more than 20 years of marketing experience in Asia Pacific, specifically Greater China. Working for adidas as director of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, she was responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing, sponsorship, licensing and business development activities. She and her team won China’s first-ever Cannes Gold Lion for the adidas Olympics campaign. Erica held the same role for adidas at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Before joining adidas, Erica was Director of Marketing and Communications for Special Olympics China, helping to develop the program from 50,000 to 500,000 participants. In addition, as an account director at J. Walter Thompson Shanghai, she was responsible for creative advertising development, product development and retail marketing for DeBeers and PepsiCo. She also worked at Nike in various roles, including Director of International Marketing for Nike Retail and Asia Pacific Marketing Manager. Erica started her marketing and advertising career at Bates Advertising in Taiwan, working with multinational clients. Erica graduated cum laude from Tufts University with a degree in international relations. She is also a founding steering board member of The Marketing Society Asia and Chairman of The Marketing Society South East Asia.

Gunjan Soni is currently the Chief Marketing Officer and Head, International Brands Business at Myntra. She brings with her over twelve years of diverse experience in strategy, operations and marketing with a passion for advanced big data analytics. In her previous role as Executive Vice President for Strategy and CEO Office with Star India, she worked on new initiatives in Content, Sports and Digital. Prior to joining Star India, Gunjan was a partner at McKinsey and worked across multiple consumer sectors and geographies, including India, UK, Singapore and Bhutan. She is credited with starting McKinsey’s Scientific Marketing practice for India. Gunjan has an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and also worked with Infosys as a software engineer at the beginning of her career.

Ms. Karen Ngui joined DBS in June 2005 and is Managing Director and Head of Group Strategic Marketing and Communications. She leads corporate communications, brand management, corporate advertising, strategic marketing, internal communications, sponsorships and corporate social responsibility. She is also responsible for managing and enhancing the bank’s brand positioning and establishing a consistent brand identity across all businesses and markets, including Singapore, Greater China, South and Southeast Asia. Karen has over 20 years of experience in corporate branding, marketing and communications for financial institutions. Prior to joining DBS, she was the Global Head, Brand Management and Strategic Marketing for Standard Chartered Bank. Karen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern Illinois and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Iowa. She is a Malaysian citizen and a Singapore Permanent Resident and is married with three children.

Originally from Holland, Mie-Leng Wong assumed the position of Director of International Brands with Tiger in June 2013 as a core member of the Asia Pacific Commerce Leadership team. Mie-Leng is responsible for Tiger’s global growth strategy, including market expansion, business development, brand equity and innovation strategy. In addition, she oversees the development of all communication, design and activation initiatives in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The second person to join Asia Pacific from Heineken after its acquisition of Asia Pacific Breweries, she leads a team of asset and business development managers reporting to the President of Asia Pacific. Mie-Leng was previously the Head of Brand Strategy, Positioning & Brand Identity as part of the Heineken International Global Marketing Capabilities team. She was responsible for driving initiatives and programmes that would build global and local marketing capabilities for profitable growth, helping marketing teams increase brand effectiveness. She played a pivotal role in the success of the Heineken Global Commerce University. Before joining Heineken International, Mie-Leng spent 17 years working at Unilever. During her tenure, she served as the Global Brand & Innovation Director for Family Goodness brands, leading the global Family Goodness team with a responsibility for Brand Vision & Strategy. Mie-Leng has been acknowledged as the one of the top three most successful women in Marketing in the Netherlands, as published in “Tijdschrift voor Marketing” in February 2010. She graduated from Utrecht University cum laude with a Masters in International Economics, completing her final thesis at Philips in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Neerja Sewak is Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer of Cerebos. She is responsible for Sales, Marketing and R&D for BRAND’S, a brand with a substantial legacy of 180 years in health enrichment. Neerja leads the Asian markets that are the stronghold of the multi-million dollar brand, but has her goals set on geographic expansion to the UK, the original home of the brand, and to Japan, their global headquarters. She has the responsibility of transforming a traditional brand to a lifestyle brand that has scientifically proven efficacy. Neerja has worked in seven countries and is equally at home in Australia, Europe, the US and Asia. She is impatient for results and creates a sense of urgency and ownership in her team. Before moving to Singapore, she headed a global Strategy and Innovation role in the pain category of the consumer health division of Novartis in Switzerland, where she steered aggressive sales and marketing initiatives. Neerja held several key marketing and strategy positions at Cadbury Schweppes in UK, Thailand and Australia. She led cross-functional teams to launch high performing new products, implemented fundamental routes to market changes and facilitated mergers and acquisitions. Neerja has a variety of experience across industries, including automotive, FMCG and consumer health. She has a Masters of Science in MIS from the University of Arizona.

Piotr joined GO-JEK as Chief Marketing Officer in January 2016, bringing with him a unique understanding of marketing in the context of local Indonesian culture. Previously, Piotr was tasked with growing the VML office in Indonesia, a digital agency which had just entered the local market. Within just two and a half years, the agency had grown to one of the most successful in Indonesia, being named Campaign Asia’s Digital Agency of the Year in 2016. The agency won numerous awards and accolades for its work for clients such as adidas, Danone, BCA, Prudential and Unilever. In 2015, he was named to the Campaign Asia 40 under 40 list of the region’s best marketers. Before VML, Piotr held various positions at Leo Burnett Chicago and Jakarta, handling clients such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, McDonald’s, Philip Morris and Philips. He made his return to Indonesia with Leo Burnett in 2013, excited by the imminent explosion of the digital industry in the country. Piotr is a classic TCK (Third Culture Kid), a Polish citizen, born and raised in Indonesia and completing secondary education in the frigid state of Iowa in the United States. He is also an accomplished photographer, having published one book, conducted numerous photo exhibitions and photographed a number of weddings.

Shakir currently serves as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Coca-Cola, Greater China and Korea. He leads marketing strategy, execution, innovation, e-commerce and marketing capability development for Coca-Cola brands. Shakir has been with the Coca-Cola Company for more than 17 years. He has lived and worked in eight countries in Asia-Pacific, and served in various marketing and general management roles. His last assignment was based in Thailand, as Marketing Director for Coca-Cola ASEAN. He was instrumental in developing winning brands via world-class marketing across multiple markets in Asia. Shakir is a determined and dedicated leader. He was awarded “Asia Marketing Super Achiever Award” by CMO Asia in 2010. He also won the coveted Coca-Cola Worldwide Marketing Excellence Award multiple times. Shakir earned his MBA in Marketing from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, Pakistan’s oldest business school.

Vittavat Tantivess is a veteran marketer with more than 20 years of experience in skin care, laundry and household cleaning categories across Unilever’s regional countries in Asia. After returning from Unilever’s regional office based in Singapore, he moved from consumer products to food category by joining Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (CPF), a leading agroindustrial and food conglomerate in the Asia Pacific region. Currently, he is responsible for strategic business planning and execution as well as corporate communications for the CP brand. Vittavat holds an MBA from Eastern Michigan University in the USA and also participated in a General Management Program at Harvard Business School. Marketing strategy, brand strategy, brand communications and consumer innovation are his areas of expertise.

Dan has extensive marketing and general management experience in the U.S., Latin America and now Asia. He began working in advertising in New York at DDB and then moved on to brand management at Pfizer. Later, at American Express, he worked in roles including Consumer Card Head for Latin America & Caribbean. While there, his teams led merchant acceptance, alliances, Membership Rewards, cross sell, CRM, loyalty, customer acquisition and product launches like Platinum, Blue and Centurion. In 2003 he founded a customer loyalty consultancy that evolved into Black Sheep, a marketing and advertising agency for the Americas. Client experience includes American Express, Bally Total Fitness, Cerveza Tropical, LendingTree, Medtronic, NASA Federal, SAP, Scotiabank and PriceSmart. Dan returned to the corporate world in 2011 for MasterCard in Latin America & Caribbean where he led Consumer Marketing, Planning & Insights. He transitioned to Singapore in 2015 and assumed the role of Consumer Marketing Head for Asia Pacific overseeing sponsorships, digital, media and Priceless. Dan was born in Canada and has lived and worked in the United States and Latin America. He is a UCLA graduate, Thunderbird MBA and coaches youth baseball.

Mr. Yuen Kuan Moon was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Singapore on 1 June 2012. He is responsible for leading the Singapore consumer business to deliver a complete and integrated suite of services, including mobile, broadband and TV solutions to consumers. Moon began his career with Singtel on 1 February 1993 and has over 20 years of experience in the consumer business, including marketing, business development, retail and channel sales. He has held several leadership roles, including Vice President of Regional Operations and Executive Vice President of Digital Consumer. Earlier in his career, Moon was posted to PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), Singtel’s regional mobile associate, as General Manager for Product Development and was appointed Director of Commerce from 2005 to 2007. He has served on the Board of Commissioners in Telkomsel since 2009. Moon graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Engineering from the University of Western Australia. He also holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University, US.