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MullenLowe Indonesia loses senior management team as CEO, CCO and COO leave to start afresh

Three members of the agency management team have left MullenLowe Group Indonesia with an aim to start a separate agency. Among those who have left are CEO Joseph Tan, chief creative officer Roy Wisnu and chief operating officer Daniel Siswandi.

Joseph Tan

Daniel Siswandi

Roy Wisnu

A spokesperson for MullenLowe Group Asia-Pacific confirmed the departure to Mumbrella and said: “Our main priority now is to ensure our employees and clients are assured and supported and we have spent the last week in Jakarta doing just that, with success. 

“Our people who have chosen to stay with us (less than 30% of the workforce initially resigned but we are seeing this significantly reduce following positive discussion) view this incident as an opportunity to make the agency better and accelerate the digital-centricity of the business. 

“The majority of our clients have been extremely loyal and supportive and are keen to see where fresh leadership and approaches resulting from this incident can take them.  

“A transitional management team, working closely with Asia-Pacific CEO Vincent Digonnet is in place and working together to strengthen ties with our teams in Singapore, sharing skills and talent to ensure that our Indonesia clients continue to receive the very best service while we work on building up the team in Indonesia to full strength.”

The spokesperson declined to answer questions from Mumbrella on the succession plans or the names of the people being appointed to replace the management team. 

Tan was a veteran at MullenLowe having spent nearly 12 years with the agency. He had previously worked for Ogilvy and TBWA. Wisnu worked for Ogilvy & Mather, JWT and McCann, across Jakarta, Singapore and New York before returning to Indonesia to join Lowe in 2014. Siswandi had worked for Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann and JWT and moved to MullenLowe in 2016.

The Indian operations of MullenLowe have faced similar issues when group chairman and CEO and regional president for South and South East Asia Joseph George quit the agency in 2017. He started Tilt Brand Solutions a year later, with a team that included Mullen Lintas president and chief creative officer Shriram Iyer and Lowe Lintas Delhi EVP Rajiv Chatterjee. 

Former Lowe Lintas chairman and chief creative officer Arun Iyer also left the agency last year to launch Spring Marketing Capital.

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