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Iris Singapore hires planning director Mindy Yap from Ogilvy amid rumours of high staff churn

Iris logoIris Worldwide in Singapore has appointed a new planning director amid rumours of high staff turnover over at the marketing agency.

Mindy Yap joins from Ogilvy Malaysia, where she spent three years working on brands including Nestle, Pizza Hut and Kimberly-Clark, and will report to Asia Pacific head of planning Paul Gage.

Yap replaces former senior planning director Sonal Narain, who joined Iris from Ogilvy in August 2012 – but left after five months in the job to re-join Ogilvy as regional planning director.

Iris has also promoted planner Adil Ismeer to planning director.

Yap’s arrival comes at a period of considerable staff churn for Iris, according to sources familiar with the agency.

A large number of people left the creative department on the same day, according to two sources. Iris denies this.

Iris APAC boss Luke Nathans said that while there had been a number of staff changes, the information about a creative department exodus was “bogus”.

He told Mumbrella: “We have had some staff turnover in the past 12 months, as has every other agency in town. We’ve made some brilliant hires and we’ve made some that haven’t worked out. We learn from that and it informs the profiles of the people that we’re hiring now. Entrepreneurial, collaborative, nimble, curious, creative and caring. That’s what we stand for as an agency and that’s what we look for in our hires.”

Among the senior people to leave in recent months is creative director Subha Naidu, who left for the US, and regional digital director David Brown who joined R/GA last year to a role as regional ECD.

A comment beneath an interview with Luke Nathans on Mumbrella said: “Huge amount of staff churn in the Singapore office – two digital creative directors, a traditional creative director, endless suits and producers coming and going, the majority of the creative team quitting on the same day – all this in the last 9 months.”

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