McCann Worldgroup appoint Berndt Soderbom President Director for their Indonesian agency

Former Leo Burnett Indonesia and Kreasindo CEO, Berndt Soderbom, will be joining McCann WorldGroup Indonesia in October to the step into the newly created post of President Director.

Soderbom is the founder-owner of one of Indonesia’s most prestigious independent integrated agencies – Kreasindo, an agency that in its day was Indonesia’s third largest agency winning ‘Agency of the Year’ consecutively from 1999 to 2001. It was also consistently rated as the country’s most awarded agency for creativity and effectiveness between 1997 to 2004.

In particular Soderbom successfully led the agency through the Asian financial crises of 1997/98 with strong crisis-management initiatives for change, a time when only 15/20% of all Indonesian acclaimed Ad Agencies survived. This may have influenced ASEAN to award him the Asian Development Award in that same year, an award given to business people who have played an active role in the national economic development of ASEAN countries.

In 2000, Soderbom sold Kreasindo to Leo Burnett Worldwide and it became Leo Burnett/Kreasindo where he remained as CEO until 2004, winning ‘most awarded agency’ 1999-2004, ‘Best-of-Show’ 3 times as well as a number of international awards.

In taking up his new post at McCann Worldgroup, Soderbom will be returning to the Indonesian advertising industry after six years away, in which time he has been running his own retail business while also consulting for major international brands in their marketing efforts across Europe and SEA.

Charles Cadell, Managing Director McCann Worldgroup SEA , Australia and New Zealand said of the Soderbom’s appointment “The appointment of Berndt is very positive for McCann Worldgroup and is a further illustration of the positive transformation our agency is undertaking both in Indonesia and across the globe. Building on the great work that has already begun in Indonesia, Berndt will be working with the team there to ensure that McCann Worldgroup remains focused on delivering marketing solutions that transform brands and grow businesses. He will do this using our company pillars of creativity, innovation, performance and collaboration across all of our company’s disciplines and brands.”

Speaking of his new role Soderbom explained “Joining McCann Worldgroup at this exciting time is a great opportunity indeed. Indonesia is a market increasingly recognized as one of the new economic powerhouses as part of what is coming to be referred to as BICI (Brazil, India, China & Indonesia) and so has enormous potential. Having lived and worked in Jakarta for many years before I have great respect and admiration for the country and so am delighted to be returning here to once more.”

“I see McCann Worldgroup’s transformation as a chance to develop a truly integrated communication company that is ready to service the increasingly sophisticated Indonesian client community, and through this the agency will very soon become a one of the leading agencies in Indonesia.”

This development comes on the back of some recent new business wins for McCann Worldgroup including international aggregate products company Lafarge Cement and Indonesia’s major telecom businesses Smartfen.

McCann Worldgroup Managing Director Michelle Ong will initially report into and work alongside Berndt Soderbom until December of this year when, having resigned from her post for family reasons, Ong will be returning to her home country of Malaysia.