During the transition which will be complete in February, Elrick is handing over individual responsibilities to the three ECDs of the offices in Shanghai, Mumbai and Singapore.
Charles Wigley, chairman of BBH Asia, said in a statement that Elrick has been instrumental in helping build BBH across the region and has been a great partner.
“Steve will retain his connections with us in the longer term, acting as a consultant and adviser on key projects and clients,” Wigley said. “In the meantime I'd like to personally thank Steve on behalf of everyone in BBH in Asia for all he's done here. We wish him all the very best.”
Russell Barett, Johnny Tan and Scott McClelland will be heading up the office in India, China and Singapore, respectively.
“After 15 years in the role I think it’s time for me to step back and let the guys be magnificent,” Elrick said. “First I’ll be taking a very long nap, and then dive into some more personal creative challenges, which might involve me going back to school in some capacity, could be film school, art school, photography, or my first love—writing.”
Recently, BBH Asia-Pacific hired Sydney-based independent agency The Monkeys' creative director Noah Regan and former TBWA creative Maurice Wee as creative directors at the Singapore office.
Earlier, long-serving digital creative director duo Shawn Loo and Noel Yeo resigned to go freelance. Yeo and Loo were the first digital creative director at BBH Asia Pacific for over five years and seven years, respectively. In that time, they won the Singapore Tourism Board account and created the industry-changing, drive-everything-to-Web YourSingapore campaign.