Nominees Category: Special Categories

Enero is committed to gender diversity with 63% of staff being female (as of Dec 2018), 50% of the leadership team female & 34% of the Board female. Enero Women is the female leadership program that brings together females from across the group, as well as external speakers, to encourage empowerment, education and collaboration. There are bi-monthly sessions with key female leaders such as Dr Ursula King (former elite athlete) and Dr Susan David (award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist), as well as training sessions led by female leaders. 10 Enero females were part of the program in 2017 and 13 in 2018.

At IPG Mediabrands APAC, ‘Respect’ is the central theme and driving force behind all of our organisational initiatives and programs. It’s the culture we endevour to cultivate, and the environment we seek to create for our people to thrive, excel and enjoy. All of the initiatives that the IPG Mediabrands Talent Team, Zarka & Catherine have embarked upon in the last year, tally back to three core touch points:

Self Respect

Relationship Respect

Organisational Respect

We continue to strive to create a fully inclusive and productive working environment, where our diverse backgrounds, cultures, skillsets and experiences are both embraced and celebrated serving as catalysts for innovative ideas and strategies for our clients. An environment of respect. Respect for ourselves, respect for each other, and respect for our working environment. These are concepts that everybody can relate to and they continue to form the backbone of our talent strategy initiatives.

Kristy Castleton is the Founder & Chief Memory Maker of (what we believe to be) the world’s first Neuro Experience agency, Rebel & Soul.

2018 saw the award-winning agency carve out their own niche, disrupt the industry, and diversify their offering by:
– Providing an end-to-end service to their clients with the acquisition of Quintessentially Singapore
– Creation (and ownership) of tech-based products
– Formalise their proprietary neuroscience framework INVOLVE

YOY the total revenue increased 36%, net profits increased 32%, client satisfaction sat at 92% and new business wins increased 82% – all of which took place without any marketing, completely through referrals. They also received multiple industry awards recognising their Founder Kristy Castleton, the business overall as well as the outstanding campaigns created.

With 100% staff retention and the team growing almost 25%, it was a record breaking year in all respects for both Rebel & Soul and their clients.

Mickey Zhang is CEO of [m]PLATFORM, GroupM China. [m]PLATFORM is the world’s most powerful collection of data, tech and media expertise enabling global audience addressability and accountability across all media. She leads [m]PLATFORM strategy and expansion in China, developing data-driven breakthroughs and advancing the science of consumer-centric communications for all of GroupM’s clients in China. Prior to being the CEO of [m]PLATFORM, GroupM China, Mickey was appointed as CEO of Programmatic Businesses, GroupM China. In this role, she was responsible for Xaxis, PBU, Plista and ADOPS, optimizing and integrating GroupM’s internal resources to achieve the greater success of the group’s programmatic buying business in China.

Passion for people.

Unrelenting commitment to inspiring excellence.

Passion for creative thinking.

Pisey Jessica’s ethos as a leader may be summarized through the lines above.

And her aforementioned passion and way of thinking could be credited for much of the success that her agency, Comzone (Cambodia), currently enjoys today.

Success that is harder and harder to come by given the pace of change in the business space where Comzone operates – brand communications.

“People is what makes the world go round. People is what makes our business go forward,” Pisey Jessica would be oft-quoted. “The secret to business success in our business is no secret.

Wholeheartedly, consistently put people at the center, and you’ll never go wrong.”