BBDO/Proximity Malaysia’s Michelle Achuthan moves up to Managing Director role

BBDO/Proximity Malaysia has promoted Michelle Achuthan to the newly created role of Managing Director, effective immediately, in recognition of her astounding contribution to the agency over the past seven years. Aside from agency management duties, Achuthan’s core focus will be on business development and helping the agency secure an unfair share of talent. Achuthan joined BBDO Malaysia in December 2003 as business unit head across several of the agency’s core businesses. She also helped launch Proximity in Malaysia in 2004, before she was promoted to client service director and eventually, general manager.

Throughout Achuthan’s tenure, she’s managed to demonstrate the network’s strength and understanding of local and regional markets and as a result, was instrumental in helping the agency win the pitch for Fonterra’s launch of Calci-yum that preceded BBDO’s appointment as Fonterra’s agency of record. With Proximity Malaysia, Michelle played a significant role in nurturing relationships with clients such as Maxis and Astro.

BBDO/Proximity Malaysia’s Group Chief Executive Jennifer Chan adds that Achuthan’s business aptitude was put to the test only to have her pass with flying colours during the recent global recession. Although business was scarce and budgets were thin, Michelle demonstrated resilience, often accompanied by personal trade-offs.

“Without the leadership and commitment of Michelle and her teams, our agency would not have been able to get our clients to run the great work that made BBDO/Proximity Malaysia great,” Chan said. “Michelle was and still is a great client management professional. She has built a strong account management department in the last few years and has been a strong advocate for great work,” Chan said. “I will continue to count on Michelle to help steer this agency to even greater heights in the next few years, and I have all the confidence in Michelle that she will do a brilliant job!”