Lowe Profero promotes Radhe Vaswani to MD for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong

Vaswani replaces Stuart Edwards, who is leaving the agency after 12 years to relocate to Sydney to pursue an “undisclosed venture”.

In her new role, Vaswani has moved to Singapore from Lowe Profero's Hong Kong office, where she previously held the position of general manager.

Reporting into co-founder and global CEO Wayne Arnold, Vaswani will manage the agency’s teams across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, working across clients including Danone Nutricia, Direct Asia, DFS, Lufthansa Airlines and Millennium Hotels.

Commenting on the promotion, Vaswani said that she hoped her global experience across digital marketing, media and platform development would help take Lowe Profero to the “next level”. As well as being tasked to capitalise on recent growth at the agency, she said she would also be continuing to drive the agency’s user experience offering.

“We’ve been building a very strong UX and design product within Southeast Asia, and I’d like to continue that," she said. "There’s a lot of opportunity in this area within the region."

Vaswani’s promotion comes as welcome news in the campaign for gender equality in the region. Last week, it was reported that Singapore was falling behind China, Malaysia and Hong Kong in terms of women in management positions. According to the 2015 Hays Asia Salary Guide, only 27 per cent of management positions in Singapore are held by women, the second lowest among the five countries surveyed.

“I’ve always found myself in a room with mostly men, sometimes I’ve been the only women in the room, and that can be especially true in digital,” said Vaswani. “But I hope that we start to see more women in these positions, digital is not just a boy's club," she added.

Vaswani’s career at Lowe Profero spans four years, and she brings experience of working in three markets. She joined the agency in 2011 as a global account director in New York, before moving to Hong Kong in July 2012 to lead Lowe Profero’s creation and implementation of global luxury retailer DFS’ online and e-commerce presence.

Commenting on the promotion, Arnold said: “Radhe is amongst the best strategic and commercial talents I have had the pleasure of working with. Southeast Asia remains a crucial region for Lowe Profero’s global ambitions. Under Radhe’s expert leadership I am confident we will continue the incredible growth we have witnessed here.”