DDB China Group appoints Timothy Yew as director of operations

Yew will report to Richard Tan, president and CEO of DDB Group North China, in this new role, which was previously held by Per Bruun, who only focussed on Tribal DDB Shanghai, and has now been expanded to serve the entire DDB China Group.

Based in Shanghai, Yew will manage all operational aspects, including more seamless and streamlined creative, technology and production operations. He will help clients, as well as DDB China Group itself, to achieve increased product quality, timeliness and to stay on budget.

“My role will be to pay attention to the often-neglected people nature of business, focusing on my strengths of people management and delivery optimisation,” said Yew.

Speaking of his operational approach, he told Campaign Asia-Pacific: “In the agency business, many often focus on the clients, the creative work, the ideas and innovation. What a lot of agencies fail to realise is that a lot of times, ideas fail at the delivery, execution and the 'follow-through' aspects that make ideas a reality.”

“To deliver this customer quality, it’s critical to be it on time, on budget, above expectation and the investments in such people that make things happen—that's the new agency model and the new dynamics. I focus on ensuring that the resourcing, the empowerment, the investment as well as the retention of a special breed that understands and delivers—allowing the agency to present a quality of service and work that is outstanding and results-driven,” he added.

Yew was the director of client services at Profero Shanghai before joining DDB China. Prior to that, he was the director of digital innovation at BIG Advertising in Singapore, as well as various client and agency roles for Digital Equipment, 3Com, Intel, SESAMi, LatticeKey Solutions, Weber Shandwick and Upstream. Yew has built a range of business competencies from heading up new business divisions within a network / established core business, to managing multi-teams across new departments, and scaling teams across the region.