Ma’s last day will be next Friday, when former general manager of MRM Ella Kan will take over his role. Kan has also worked on the Asia Mile and Marco Polo Club account for years and is very familiar with the CX client. The CXCT team will still be led by Vince Viola, executive VP and managing director of CXCT.
Ma said he is taking a break to make preparations for starting his own business.
Sylvester Song, who has been leading the Cathay Pacific account at McCann Erickson Hong Kong for almost five years, including two years as joint ECD, resigned in June. Subsequently Thierry Halbroth was promoted to sole ECD of CXCT.
Meanwhile Cathay Pacific announced last Wednesday that its net profit for the first half of 2010 soared more than eight fold, reaching US$881 million from US$812 million in the first half of 2009. Most of the growth was attributed to robust passenger and cargo demand, despite the unprecedented massive disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud over Europe in April.
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