Conneen will oversee Wunderman’s efforts throughout the Asia Pacific region’s 14 countries, including Australia. He takes over from Stephane Faggianelli, who has served as regional president since 2006 and will now go on to be regional president for Europe/Middle East & Africa (EMEA).
Conneen told Campaign Asia-Pacific that his key focus will be on further strengthening and building analytics and data capabilities, partly by expanding the network's knowledge-based marketing specialist, KBM Group. Expectations from digital campaigns are growing higher, he said, adding that companies are becoming more focused on results- and data-driven solutions.
“E-commerce, mobile, additional M&As in main markets and expanding the KBMG footprint and capabilities in APAC will also be a core agenda for 2014 and beyond,” he said.
The moves are effective immediately, and both men report to Daniel Morel, chairman and CEO. Conneen will join the Wunderman executive board, where Faggianelli is already a member.
Conneen joined Wunderman in 2006 to form Wunderman International in Tokyo to serve the Microsoft business in Japan. He was most recently the chief operating officer of Wunderman’s brand experience division. He was previously managing director, global client lead at Team Nokia.
Faggianelli, meanwhile, returns to Europe after spending 12 years in Asia, where he aligned acquisitions like Agenda, Bienalto and Comwerks with Wunderman’s global network, according to the agency. He will be based in London.