Lockwood, who spent the last 12 years leading Mastercard’s marketing efforts across 17 markets in the Asia-Pacific region, has joined Group Edge, one of the largest independent CRM marketing agencies in Southeast Asia, as vice-president of business development.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to recruit a talent of Natalie’s calibre to our organisation,” said Group Edge chairman Patrick Pitcher.
”Clients in Southeast Asia are demanding that agencies provide greater levels of sophistication to integrate data, digital and direct marketing capabilities. Natalie has spent the better part of her career doing exactly that. Edge has the capabilities, on-the-ground market understanding and client base to execute in this field. We look forward to her leadership as we continue to grow our company,” he added.
Lockwood’s appointment follows several other key announcements in the past month including the appointment of Dr. Amitava Biswas, the former McKinsey consultant, as Group Edge director of strategy and optimisation; Phan Thi Hong Le who has joined from BBDO and AC Nielsen as director of loyalty programmes; Jeff Cooper as chief data architect and Vo Minh Trung who has been to promoted to optimisation manager after having managed the group’s IT infrastructure.
“We are embarking on a new stage of development for our company, one that will see a better level of integration across our service capabilities and provide even more value to our clients. These appointments are a critical step in that direction and Natalie’s experience will provide a great addition to our team," said group president David Appleton.
Group Edge consists of direct marketing, call centre and digital media subsidiaries in Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore. Its clients include Diageo, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Mead Johnson, Citibank, Samsung, Syngenta, HSBC, Orion Foods, Merck, Heineken and other global brands.