Y&R China restructures following MD’s departure

Y&R China is undergoing a management restructure following MD Henry Chan’s decision to return to Hong Kong for family reasons.  National Planning Director Stephen Drummond has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer for China to more accurately reflect his senior remit.  Carter Chow has been promoted to Managing Director, Shanghai and Darryl Juinio to General Manager, Shanghai.  Chow will maintain his very strong focus on Colgate as a key client for the agency as well as taking on additional operational responsibilities. They will work closely with Chief Creative Officer Nils Andersson on driving business growth forward with innovative and creative work.

Y&R Asia President Matthew Godfrey said, “We have aggressive plans for growth in the world’s second largest economy, with a target of tripling revenues there by 2013. Y&R has been in China for 25 years but Henry has made the agency feel fresh and new again in the two years he’s been with us.  We’re very sorry to see him go and wish him and his family the very best.”       

Henry Chan has been instrumental in the rebirth of Y&R China in the country, with the agency recently winning iconic brand GAP as a client and scoring a number of industry awards at Cannes and Spikes Asia.    

Commenting on his departure from the agency, Chan said, “This has been the toughest career decision I’ve had to make as I feel that we have a very closely knitted team that has built up such a positive momentum in the last couple of years through innovative thinking and hard work. I will certainly miss not just what we have achieved together for the agency and the client but also the highly enjoyable process. Nevertheless, I know that the team we now have here has the abilities and the commitment to take this momentum forward and beyond.”

Godfrey also announced that the network would be looking to appoint a CEO for Y&R China in early 2011, to fill the position left by Tom Kao in April 2010.