Jeffrey Seah takes on Southeast Asia role for VivaKi

To report into VivaKi CEO Jack Klues and CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group Laura Desmond, Seah will retain his position as the CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group in Southeast Asia.

Klues noted that Seah has a formidable track record of delivering growth and new thinking.

“With agencies and experts throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines, we have a powerful opportunity to have a stronger and more unified voice in the marketplace by combining forces, restructuring around VivaKi and aligning behind Jeffrey’s leadership,” he added.

Part of Publicis Groupe, VivaKi helps identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future, for its four agency brands, namely ZenithOptimedia, Starcom MediaVest Group, Digitas and Razorfish.

The new role will see Seah working collaboratively with the regional and local leadership of those agencies to strengthen their service offerings and clout. He will also support the brand leaders to drive cross-brand growth initiatives for VivaKi in the market, as well as delivering operational and financial goals.

Seah has spent more than a decade at SMG, with the initial responsibility for launching the Starcom brand in Asia and setting up its first office in Singapore in 1999. He also helped launch the Starcom IP Digital Marketing Unit across Asia in 2002.

He then spent three years with Group M, before re-joining Starcom MediaVest Group in 2009 as CEO to helm the operations across the region.

Commenting on his appointment, Seah said, “The introduction of the VivaKi structure in SEA will help consolidate scale in the marketplace. It allows both ZenithOptimedia and Starcom MediaVest Group to align our focus and resources to future proof our operations.”