Uber’s Ali Grayeli heads to Weber Shandwick for APAC ECD role
Uber Asia-Pacific’s executive creative director Ali Grayeli has left the ride-sharing company after just one year to join public relations agency Weber Shandwick.
As part of a newly created role, Grayeli will lead the Weber Shandwick’s creative strategy in APAC as the agency plots the expansion of its creative team globally. The agency was unable to disclose the size of its creative team in APAC at the time of publication.
He will report to Weber Shandwick’s chief executive officer for APAC Baxter Jolly and will move from his current location in Singapore to Shanghai over the coming months.
Grayeli first joined Uber APAC in August last year. Before that, he held senior creative roles at McCann WorldGroup Singapore and Ogilvy China.
“Ali is a storyteller and creative visionary – skills which are essential to our firm as we work to consistently drive integrated campaigns on behalf of our clients,” said Jolly. “Ali’s creative direction will provide significant value to our partners, whilst also adding to our already strong leadership team within the region.”
“It’s an honour joining Weber Shandwick. It’s a truly great agency that has long been at the forefront of helping brands define their reputations and create highly engaging campaigns,” Grayeli added. “With the blistering pace at which we’re moving in today’s world, Weber Shandwick leads the way in creating meaningful dialogues with audiences resulting in business results and greater brand equity. I’m looking forward to doing some great work with some amazing people.”
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
““Ali is a storyteller and creative visionary – skills which are essential to our firm….”
really? what makes you say this baxter jolly?
https://www.mumbrella.asia/2016/10/uber-takes-to-singapores-public-transport-system-with-make-your-move-campaign
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] “A storyteller and creative visionary…”, good luck to Weber Shandwick you’ll need it.
Reply…also the line of a UL toothpaste brand which a certain writer worked on before going to freelance @ …. Uber. Funny coincidence that.
ReplyWeber Shandwick Singapore + blistering pace? Really – that is not a term synonymous with this agency or their current leadership.
ReplyHarsh but fair
ReplyThis guy is in for a very rude awakening.
So this is a strange one. The rest of adland is making moves into plum roles at Google, FB, AirBNB and Uber. Here’s the oddball who doesn’t just go reverse gear from tech to adland, but is happy to downgrade a notch even lower, to a PR firm, for the same title. Mouths to feed, and an inconvenient termination?
ReplyNot just Uber, people who’ve been found out have scooted from Facebook too. When the tech companies first came on the scene here, they started raiding ad agencies without any clue. They didnt want scammers so they went for the next best thing…people who did real work but (unknown to the tech firms) couldn’t crack a real brief creatively.
A lot of these tech companies don’t seem to know that long serving digital creatives here are mostly DM creatives who have desperately hung on….99% come from the very bottom of the creative rung. In advertising you can hide and coast for quite a while, talking bullshit for a living. In tech companies everything gets measured so you cant make excuses.
ReplySince when have you assumed the mantle of storytelling and creative vision hor? Stick to those crisis management briefs mate.
ReplyHave your say