Ogilvy refuses to comment on firing of Tham Khai Meng, its worldwide chief creative officer
Ogilvy has refused to comment on the firing of Singaporean Tham Khai Meng, its longtime worldwide chief creative officer, beyond an internal memo issued to staff by the chief executive officer John Seifert.
The CCO had been in the role for nine years and is also an advisor to Facebook and Twitter. He was let go from the Ogilvy New York office over complaints about his behaviour, following an internal investigation at the agency.
He previously worked at Leo Burnett and Batey, and is reported to be married and in his 60s. He also led Ogilvy to win the Cannes Lions Network of the Year award five years in a row from 2012 onwards. And he was the first Singaporean to be appointed as a global chief creative officer
Below is the full statement from Seifert:
Two weeks ago, I was informed of employee complaints regarding the behaviour of Tham Khai Meng, Chief Creative Officer of The Ogilvy Group.
I found these complaints serious enough to appoint external legal counsel to investigate the matter.
After carefully reviewing the investigation’s findings with several of my partners, we concluded that Khai’s behavior was a clear breach of our company values and code of conduct. I have decided to terminate Khai’s employment with the company with immediate effect.
Each year, we ask every employee in the company to read, authorize, and fully commit to a code of conduct that each of us is responsible for living up to. Over the past 70 years, we have institutionalized shared values and a standard of professional behavior unique to the Ogilvy brand.
This is an important moment to reaffirm that no individual in this company is too senior or too important not to be held accountable for their actions.
Thank you for your support.
Can i buy someone a ten course dinner if they can give me the real scoop on what went down?
ReplyCan I buy someone a 10-course dinner just to celebrate the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]?
ReplyI’m surprised at the sheer amount of joy I’m seeing among my friends in advertising regarding this piece of news. Apparently the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. In the absence of more details, we can only speculate.
ReplyReally!? What really happened? What was the ‘misconduct’? The few times I met him, he was professional and work-focused. I can’t imagine what he did, that would get him fired. Shocking!
ReplySo just because you met him a few times you assume that he is professional and work focused ALL of the time? He is [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyDid they think he was about to sign on with Martin?
ReplyLooks like Khai’s PR machine is [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] out of ST. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] How far do we fall huh.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ogilvy-fires-tham-khai-meng-7-things-to-know-about-the-singaporean-advertising-veteran
ReplyThis ST article is a bloody SPIN.
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] and Tham Khai Meng won agency of the year for Ogilvy Sg by [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. Thankfully [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. Now let’s get [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] and all the other [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. Only hen we can all sit back and sigh, mission accomplished!
Reply[Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines] . We all let him [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]. There is nothing here suprising any of us.
ReplyJesus wept. Who’ll turn my [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]?
ReplyThere is a youtube video of him talking some grandiose shit about creativity….I still remember everyone looking at it during a lunch break and having a huge laugh at the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]….the ST insinuation that he created the Singapore Girl is just [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplySweet Jesus, can someone please go and post these comments to the reddit thread about this (‘Does someone know the inside scoop…’)
Mumbrella’s community guidelines are taking all the fun out of posting.
Replyaccording to ET (look for the video) he was fired when his [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]
I thought he [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]
ReplyIt is a very unfortunate sort of train wreck. [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines], all that puffery about agency of the year in Cannes equated to nothing. Dear, you should have [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines]
Replyhttps://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/advertising/ogilvy-global-cco-tham-khai-meng-sacked-after-internal-complaints/videoshow/64964956.cms
ReplyI hope he doesn’t come back to SG. Please don’t come back Khai. Go buy a nice hut or something in Thailand.
ReplyHave your say