North America
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Dani Benowitz
President, US
Dani Benowitz
President, US
As U.S. President of MAGNA, IPG Mediabrands’ centralized investment and intelligence division, Dani heads up both of the agency’s core competencies:
– Investment – She serves as the chief media buyer for all of IPG Mediabrands, negotiating with media partners on behalf of UM and Initiative clients.
– Intelligence – She oversees the agency’s highly-regarded suite of studies (ad spending forecasts, media trials, media economy reports, etc.).
Dani’s career spans nearly 30 years, including stints in TV sales and at agencies including Mindshare, J. Walter Thompson and Grey where she worked on a variety of clients including Warner Lambert, Sprint, DeBeers, Domino’s Pizza, Warner Bros. and Block Drug. She joined IPG in 2003 as a VP, Supervisor at UM and rose through the ranks to become EVP, Managing Partner at the agency.
Her tenure at MAGNA began as EVP, Integrated Investment in 2016, where she played a key leadership role in media negotiations on behalf of IPG Mediabrands’ clients, working with UM’s investment teams on brands such as Coca-Cola Co., Johnson & Johnson and BMW, and with Initiative’s on brands like Amazon, Merck and Liberty Mutual.
A bold industry leader who continually redefines how media buying is conducted, Dani has been a constant force of positive change. She has advocated for moving clients’ upfront cycles from broadcast year to calendar, designed numerous innovative media partnerships and continuously tests new forms of data-driven media buys to ensure her clients receive the best efficiencies in the marketplace.
Dani has been recognized with a few industry achievements including being named a 2022 Adweek Media All Star, and in 2011, Dani was one of 20 recipients of AWNY’s Working Mothers of the Year Award.
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Leanne Burnett Wood
President, Canada
Leanne Burnett Wood
President, Canada
Since joining MAGNA Canada in April 2020 as VP, Investments, Leanne has brought extensive value to our investment practice, creating, negotiating, and implementing partnerships. Before joining Mediabrands, she held senior investments roles at Dentsu and Publicis in Canada.
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Kathy Doyle
EVP, Managing Director, Local Investment
Kathy Doyle
EVP, Managing Director, Local Investment
Kathy Doyle serves as EVP, Local Investment at MAGNA. In this newly-created role, Kathy is responsible for the management and coordination of senior investment leads across IPG Mediabrands’ portfolio of agencies and driving MAGNA’s local go-to-market proposition. A 24-year veteran within the IPG Mediabrands network, Kathy most recently served as EVP, Managing Partner at UM. In this role, Kathy oversaw all local activity for a full roster of clientele including ALDI, BMW, FCA, Coca-Cola and Sony Pictures Entertainment.Highly regarded and respected throughout the industry, Kathy is affiliated with a multitude of associations such as the 4As, Nielsen and the Television Bureau. She is the recipient of the Truth Well Told Award for her tremendous work in managing the local General Motors business for 10 years and in 2015, was named Working Mother of the Year by She Runs It (formerly Advertising Women of New York). Kathy is also a 2016 recipient of the IRTS Hall of Mentorship Award.
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Elijah Harris
EVP, Global Digital Partnerships and Media Responsibility
Elijah Harris
EVP, Global Digital Partnerships and Media Responsibility
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Brian Hughes
EVP, Managing Director, Audience Intelligence & Strategy
Brian Hughes
EVP, Managing Director, Audience Intelligence & Strategy
Brian Hughes leads the Audience Analysis Practice for MAGNA, which is tasked with making sense of consumers’ media habits in a fully mediated world. He has been with the IPG family for nearly 18 years, but joined MAGNA when television research for all IPG agencies was consolidated there in 2004. He has since grown with the company, eventually assuming the role of Executive Vice President.With MAGNA, Brian was an essential contributor in shaping the television and programming analysis operation and later had a major hand in his groups’ expansion into emerging media platforms. By integrating these mediums, Brian can deliver a more holistic view of future trends affecting the marketplace. A big believer in efficiency, he has worked hard to improve data processes and yield key insights more quickly. With his commitment to staying ahead of the fads, he has worked closely with his colleagues at the IPG Media Lab to understand consumers’ interaction with technology. Prior to working with MAGNA, Brian joined Initiative’s research team in 2000 where his interest shifted to national television. He began in this industry at Telerep, contributing local television insights for client stations.Brian represents MAGNA at many major conferences and panels including the Media Research Council’s Television and Internet Committees and the CIMM Cross-Platform Working Committee. He has a zest for the written word and applies his literary talents to marketing related articles and reports.
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Allison Kallish
EVP, Managing Director, Strategic Investment
Allison Kallish
EVP, Managing Director, Strategic Investment
As EVP, Strategic Investment in the U.S., Allie is responsible for leading MAGNA GLOBAL’s go-to-market proposition, working with MAGNA’s intelligence and forecasting teams and in close partnership with IPG Mediabrands’ agency-based investment teams. In addition, Allie leads negotiations on behalf of clients and creates strategic partnerships with key media owners and platforms.Allie has actually boomeranged back to IPG Mediabrands. She spent seven years at UM and J3 starting in 2006, where she was SVP, Managing Director, leading Johnson & Johnson’s TV business. With FCA’s win in 2009, Allie transitioned to lead the team’s Investment practice focusing on all video and publishing efforts. She then went on to Starcom MediaVest Group, as SVP, Managing Director, where she led investment across some of the world’s largest brands including Proctor & Gamble and Samsung. Allie’s career in media spans over 25 years at media agencies including Lowe & Partners, J.Walter Thompson and Mediacom, building up experience over a wide-variety of categories.
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Vincent Letang
EVP, Managing Director, Global Market Intelligence
Vincent Letang
EVP, Managing Director, Global Market Intelligence
Vincent Létang has been an international researcher, expert and consultant in the media industry, specializing in advertising market trends for the last 25 years. Vincent is currently EVP, Managing Partner, Global Market Intelligence. He has been leading MAGNA’s global market research and forecasting unit, based in New York, since 2011. In that role, he’s supervising MAGNA’s market research, publications and consulting activities. Among the regular publications of Vincent and his team are the Global Advertising Forecasts (a bi-annual report on advertising market trends in 70 countries, with 5 years net ad spend forecasts), the US Advertising Forecasts and the Programmatic Reports. Earlier in his career Vincent was Head of Advertising Research for IHS Screen Digest in London where he worked as a consultant for high-profile organizations including IAB Europe, Sony, CBS Outdoor, Ofcom and the European Commission. Prior to that he led media/telecom research practice at BIPE in Paris.
Vincent has been invited to speak on industry trends in more than 20 international conferences on media and advertising, and regular panelist at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York. Vincent is frequently interviewed and quoted in the trade press and the financial press including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, MediaWeek, MediaPost, AdExchanger, Campaign, Horizont, Bloomberg TV, etc.
Vincent holds a master’s degree in Economics from Paris Dauphine University and a master’s degree in business administration from HEC School of Management, Paris. He’s married and a father of two, and lives in New Jersey.
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Kara Manatt
EVP, Intelligence Solutions, Media Trials
Kara Manatt
EVP, Intelligence Solutions, Media Trials
EMEA
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Kevin Longhurst
Head of MAGNA EMEA
Kevin Longhurst
Head of MAGNA EMEA
Kevin is the Head of Magna for the EMEA region, and is responsible for managing Mediabrands’ media investment strategy for the region. Kevin’s role covers areas such as client partnerships, media standards, International trading, and he is heavily involved in the brokering and operationalising of the IPG global partnership approach. He is responsible for working with the local Magna leads in each market to ensure a consistent and forward facing approach to the ever changing world of media investment. Kevin brings 25 years of planning, buying and trading experience to his role, and has worked across multiple disciplines and client sectors in his previous roles at ITV and Zenith Optimedia. Kevin lives just outside of London with his wife and son.
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Anna Bratkowska
Trading & Investment Director
Anna Bratkowska
Trading & Investment Director
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Celine Baumann
Head Of MAGNA, France
Celine Baumann
Head Of MAGNA, France
Céline is Head of Magna France, and in her role, she develops and delivers media investments and productivity objectives for all areas of media for Mediabrands’ clients. She works in the interests of clients and Mediabrands with building trading deals and relationships with media vendors. Céline also manages the Offline and Guaranteed Display Purchasing teams, who lead on media purchasing on digital extensions in the press, outdoor advertising, and audio-visual categories.
For Céline, being human must be at the heart of all relationships, both with clients and with media partners, and it is extremely important to her whilst negotiating. She joined IPG 7 years ago, taking over the management of the audio-visual department, after spending more than 15 years at Publicis, where she began her career.
Outside of work, Céline enjoys spending time with family, traveling around the world and restoring furniture.
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Aschwin De Bruijn
Managing Director, Netherlands
Aschwin De Bruijn
Managing Director, Netherlands
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Manuel García Meroño
Director General, Spain
Manuel García Meroño
Director General, Spain
Manuel joined MAGNA as General Manager in April 2015. In his new role, he will be responsible for promoting and developing the competitive position of MAGNA in the Spanish market, across all media channels.
Manuel has over 15 years of experience in the advertising market, both in business management and negotiation and media buying.
Manuel started his career in the sales department of Mediaset, a leading media group in Spain. Later he became part of the media planning group as head of trading in Barcelona.Before joining MAGNA, Manuel was the head of trading at Havas Media Group in Spain, where he led the strategic negotiation for the entire group, overseeing a volume of $1billion in media billings.
Manuel graduated in law from the University of Murcia, and later studied an MBA at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.
Manuel has lived in Madrid, Barcelona and Dublin.
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Benjamin Holmfred
CEO Magna Nordics
Benjamin Holmfred
CEO Magna Nordics
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Natalia Julio
Media Business Director, Portugal
Natalia Julio
Media Business Director, Portugal
As Media Business Director and a member of the IPG Mediabrands board, Natália Júlio is the pioneer of the MAGNA role in Portugal. With a long and solid experience in media and communication, she is now leading the development of a broader strategic approach to media partners, on the scope of IPG Mediabrands agencies.
Prior to this challenge, Natália had been the Managing Director of BrandConnection Portugal, the IPG brand she launched in 2001 and conducted as one of the most creative and innovative media agencies in the market. Under her guidance, BrandConnection was awarded several prizes including the Most Efficacy Agency in 2006, several Portugal Effies Awards, annual Creative Club Awards and the Best Media Agency in 2010.
When appointed to launch BrandConnection in the Portuguese market, Natália already had extensive experience in both media and creative agencies. Her first contact with the ‘agencies world’ was in 1985, in the new media research department at Ogilvy&Mather. After this initial experience, she moved to FCB, where she was the Media Director. Then she had the chance to ingress in Initiative, where she stayed until 2001 as Client Service Director.
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Dominique Mikaits
COO at IPG Mediabrands Greece
Dominique Mikaits
COO at IPG Mediabrands Greece
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Richard Oliver
Managing Director, UK
Richard Oliver
Managing Director, UK
As Head of MAGNA UK, Richard oversees all media investments across UM and Initiative clients. Working with a team of negotiators across the two agencies he is responsible for devising and implementing the negotiation strategies that will deliver the maximum value to each IPG client.
Prior to taking on the MAGNA role, Richard was Managing Partner, Investment, at UM having worked his way up through the TV buying team. His entry point into media was at ITV, UK’s largest TV company.
Richard works and lives in London with his wife and two children.
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Jakub Kolczynski
Chief Investment Officer, DACH
Jakub Kolczynski
Chief Investment Officer, DACH
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Julie Praet
Head of Magna, Belgium
Julie Praet
Head of Magna, Belgium
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Alessandro Basile
Head of Magna/Media Owner Relations, Italy
Alessandro Basile
Head of Magna/Media Owner Relations, Italy
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Allison Thompson
Magna Lead, South Africa
Allison Thompson
Magna Lead, South Africa
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Imre Tallósy
Managing Director, Magna, Hungary
Imre Tallósy
Managing Director, Magna, Hungary
As Head of MAGNA Hungary, Imre oversees all media investments across IPG Mediabrands clients. He is responsible for devising and implementing the negotiation strategies that will deliver the maximum value to each IPG client.
Imre has over 20 years of experience in offline and online media, both in the media agency and client side. He is a trading veteran and a highly regarded industry expert who has been working in the company since 2015, when he joined MAGNA as Trading director.
Imre lives and works in Budapest, outside of work he likes to spend his time with his family or to play and see football matches.
LATAM
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Karla Natareno
Regional Director, LATAM
Karla Natareno
Regional Director, LATAM
Karla has been a part of IPG Mediabrands since 2012 and leads MAGNA regionally in Latin America. She is the subject matter expert on trading and accountability for all markets within the region with a clear focus on generating value within a competitive, innovative and transparent environment for IPG advertisers.
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Marlene Acosta
Director, Rate Business, Colombia
Marlene Acosta
Director, Rate Business, Colombia
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Juan Pablo García
Head of Magna, Mexico
Juan Pablo García
Head of Magna, Mexico
Juan Pablo has more than 24 years of experience in the advertising and media industry, having worked for the investment sector. He joined Mediabrands in 2018 as Director of MAGNA, Mexico. In this role, he has managed to develop a collaborative workflow across the network agencies, while contributing to the implementation of new strategies, such as the digital excellence Hub, supply tracker and gaming strategy.
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Karina García
Head of Magna, Argentina
Karina García
Head of Magna, Argentina
With vast experience based on media buying and negotiation, Karina studied advertising and leads Magna Argentina. She is focused on generating and delivering value for all IPG Mediabrands clients.
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Catalina Lescano
Head of Magna, Ecuador
Catalina Lescano
Head of Magna, Ecuador
Catalina is an advertising professional and holds an MBA in Marketing and Business. She has more than 14 years of experience across the Ecuadorian advertising market. She’s been part of IPG for 4 years, first as a planner and account coordinator. She is currently serving as Director of MAGNA, Ecuador.
“Curiosity is part of my daily life. Every single moment brings a kind of surprise, which allows me to learn something new, something special and different, where passion and confidence can play a key part in building relationships.”
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Alejandra Miranda
Head of MAGNA, Uruguay
Alejandra Miranda
Head of MAGNA, Uruguay
With studies in international business and specialization as an advertising media analyst, Alejandra Miranda has led the strategic planning and account service teams for key clients in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, both in Uruguay and Argentina. Her expertise extends to commercial, clients services, negotiation and human management areas.
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Francisco Muñoz
Director, Chile
Francisco Muñoz
Director, Chile
Francisco Muñoz is the Director of Negotiation and Investment, MAGNA Chile. Having graduated from the University of Santiago, Francisco is an advertising professional with more than 25 years of experience, mainly in the area of Negotiation and Media Planning. He has led account teams for best-in-class clients within the Chilean market, such as Entel, Falabella and Cencosud, among others.
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Gastón Vega
Director, Peru
Gastón Vega
Director, Peru
With over 18 years of experience in media and communication, managing clients in different market segments, Gastón has been leading Initiative Peru as managing director. He now takes on the role of Magna director for Peru.
APAC
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Gurpreet Singh
Managing Director, APAC
Gurpreet Singh
Managing Director, APAC
Gurpreet leads the strategic investment & trading function for Mediabrands in Asia. He took up the regional lead role for MAGNA in 2012 when MAGNA was being redefined with a new vision, new practices and new global/regional leadership. Since then he has been instrumental in successfully setting up a cohesive network of trading teams across all markets in Asia, significantly improving buying performance of key clients, making significant contribution in improving the agency’s programmatic trading offer through key strategic partnerships & achieving a superior trading practice for Mediabrands in Asia.
Prior to his role at MAGNA, Gurpreet was General Manager of Mediabrands Malaysia for 5 years where he was part of the core team which led Malaysia’s explosive growth by 3 times in 4 years moving from the No. 8 to No. 2 position in the market. As part of his general management role, he was also leading the trading function for Malaysia & managed some diversified services as well.
Before Mediabrands Malaysia, he was General Manager at FCB Malaysia heading the media department for 2 years. Prior to that, he was heading the FCB Lodestar Media team in Delhi, India.Throughout his career, Gurpreet has experienced all facets of advertising working across multiple functions in full service & media specialist agencies. This helped him build multiple skills & a holistic perspective in his thinking.
Gurpreet has studied in MICA, India’s top communication school after his post-graduation degree in pure sciences.
He lives in Kuala Lumpur with his wife & son but travels the whole world for business & pleasure.
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Kozo Saito
Head of MAGNA, Japan
Kozo Saito
Head of MAGNA, Japan
With more than 30 years industry experience Kozo first joined McCann Erickson Japan in 1992. In May 2013, he was appointed to SVP, Chief Buying Officer and later promoted to the position of CEO Trading. In April 2017, he was appointed to Chief Operating Officer of Mediabrands Japan and Head of MAGNA, where his strong media partner relationships provide an advantage to negotiate the best possible media deals for its clients on a sustained basis.
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Arun Sharma
Managing Director, MAGNA India
Arun Sharma
Managing Director, MAGNA India
Arun is armed with more than 20 years of industry experience on both the client and media agency sides of the business. An alumni of MICA (1994-96), Sharma started his career working across leading agencies handling blue chip accounts such as J&J, Coca-Cola, Gillette, L’Oreal, and Nestle to name a few. In 2003, Arun moved to the client’s side and joined Airtel, the No. 1 telecom service provider in India where he eventually left his position as Airtel VP Marketing - Head Media, to join the Mediabrands agency Initiative as Vice President in 2014. In his current role, Arun leads the Delhi Office as Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Magna.
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Hema Malik
Managing Director, India
Hema Malik
Managing Director, India
Hema Malik is a media veteran of over 24 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Magna Global in India and also the COO of Lodestar UM, where managing media responsibilities across a diverse set of clients like Coca-Cola, Samsung, BMW, Gillette, Reckitts Benckiser, Airtel, Zomato, Tata Docomo to name a few have provided extensive experience in brand building, innovation, media planning and buying. As the Managing Director of Magna Global in India, Hema drives the reputation of Magna as the trusted global source for predicting the future of media value, economic data, media and consumer consumption trends.
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Venkatesh S
SVP, Director Intelligence Practice, India
Venkatesh S
SVP, Director Intelligence Practice, India
Venkatesh currently leads the intelligence practice at MAGNA in India. Venkatesh’s responsibilities are to liaise with other South Asian markets to extend the footprint of MAGNA Intelligence. He is also responsible for research procurement and fronts pricing during new business acquisition in the region.
Prior to his current role at MAGNA, he was heading procurement for ITC - one of the largest advertisers for IPG Mediabrands. He was part of senior management and played a critical role in devising procurement strategy for the agency.
Preceding this as Head of CTG at Group M, Venky was accountable for over 40% of the trading in the Southern part of India.
Venky’s 28 years of experience across manufacturing, banking & advertising has seasoned him to embrace change, build open & honest relationships and be determined & passionate to do more with less.
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Kanokwan Kunaruangroj
Managing Director, Thailand
Kanokwan Kunaruangroj
Managing Director, Thailand
In her 18 years with the Mediabrands network Kanokwan has gained experience across a number of core categories from Finance to FMCG. Following 15 years communication planning across media agencies Initiative and UM in Thailand, Kanokwan gained an in-depth specialized knowledge of the market, clients and business operations which led to her ascension to role of Managing Director for MAGNA Thailand. As Managing Director of MAGNA Thailand, Kanokwan has consistently demonstrated her strength in negotiation, partnerships, and consulting across key global accounts such as Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, BMW, Air Asia, and Telenor, as well as local clients with key global and local media owners.
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May Rosales
MAGNA Lead, Philippines
May Rosales
MAGNA Lead, Philippines
May joined MAGNA in 2015 where she currently leads the media investment negotatiation across the Mediabrands agencies in market. Bringing more than 21 years industry experience across various roles and categories within the Mediabrands network, May first joined UM in 2000 as Buying Head for the Johnson and Johnson AOR account, in addition to working across Coca-Cola, and the local pharmaceutical company Unilab.
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May Wong
Head of MAGNA, Singapore
May Wong
Head of MAGNA, Singapore
As the Head of MAGNA Singapore, May Wong works closely with clients and the agency’s Business Teams to maximise media and marketing investment utilizing insights, forecasts and strategic relationships with industry and media partners to provide clients of IPG Mediabrands Singapore with a competitive marketplace advantage. Prior to the MAGNA role, May Wong lead a Business team at IPG Mediabrands Singapore from 2012-2017. Her account management experience spanned across multiple categories, including but not limited to Travel, Tourism, Telecommunications, Internet, MICE, Luxury Fashion & Lifestyle, Automobile, Government, and FMCG. A Bachelor of Science graduate from the University of London, May Wong has worked in other local and international media agencies as well as taking a Research position at MediaCorp, the leading broadcaster of Singapore, in the early phase of her career.
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Nick Durrant
Managing Director, MAGNA Australia
Nick Durrant
Managing Director, MAGNA Australia
Nick Durrant is the Managing Director of MAGNA Australia. He has more than 25 years of media experience ranging from strategy and client management to investment. He brings a unique strategic approach to media investment and is heavily focused on transforming current market practice to a far more future focused approach harnessing the trends we now see particularly around addressability. Nick is a passionate advocate for data-driven decision making and has spearheaded many initiatives that have given better, faster data to our investment community.Prior to his role at Magna Nick was the Chief Partnerships and Trading Officer at Initiative for three years where he developed a unique Australian Initiative trading story as well as the tools to deliver it. He was also the National Head of Trading at News Corp for two and a half years and prior to that the National Head of Data and Knowledge at Mindshare.
Prior to his role at Magna Nick was the Chief Partnerships and Trading Officer at Initiative for three years where he developed a unique Australian Initiative trading story as well as the tools to deliver it. He was also the National Head of Trading at News Corp for two and a half years and prior to that the National Head of Data and Knowledge at Mindshare.
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Anderson Wang
Head of MAGNA, Technology and Operation TW & HKwan
Anderson Wang
Head of MAGNA, Technology and Operation TW & HKwan
As Head of MAGNA Hong Kong and Taiwan, in his current role Anderson leads the digital and offline media investment across these two markets, in addition to steering the search, social, programmatic buying, performance marketing, MarTech consultation, and internal/external stakeholders training. Anderson joined UM Taiwan in 2016 as Digital Director where he managed multiple global/local accounts. Prior to that, Anderson's industry experience encompassed working with tech partners such as Sizmek and Sales Frontier (a Google SSP partner).
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Fan Chen Yip
Chief Investment Officer, Malaysia
Fan Chen Yip
Chief Investment Officer, Malaysia
Fan Chen Yip comes with 30 years’ experience across multi-faceted roles within the Malaysian media industry. As Chief Investment Officer, he is responsible for all legacy and new media investments within the group. His remit reflects a strong focus on buying accountability and innovation as he expands the trading scope to adapt to the new needs of the industry, creating opportunities to optimize business value for clients.
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Mandy Lu
General Manager, MAGNA China
Mandy Lu
General Manager, MAGNA China
As General Manager of Magna China, Mandy is responsible for leading the Magna media negotiation team in providing strategic negotiation and investment solutions for clients across Mediabrands. With more than 15 years of experience in the media industry, including over a decade in digital media, Mandy carries an in-depth knowledge of the digital media and marketing ecosystem in China, as well as media partner relations.