Career
20+ Years of Brand and Marketing Leadership
20+ years of brand, marketing and loyalty leadership across aviation, finance and hospitality.
Gallery 7The spiral rampExperience.
Career
20+ Years of Brand and Marketing Leadership
20+ years of brand, marketing and loyalty leadership across aviation, finance and hospitality.
The roles, from 2026 back to 2005
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Aug 2023 – Present
Head of Strategy and Communications
Motion: For Impact
Leading a 20+ person team across strategy, content and large-scale events for regional clients including Hilton, UOB, DSO and RQAM, with full budget ownership end to end.
Aug 2023 – Present
Head of Strategy and Communications
Motion: For Impact
Leading a 20+ person team across strategy, content and large-scale events for regional clients including Hilton, UOB, DSO and RQAM, with full budget ownership end to end.
- Led strategy and communications for Hilton’s 2024 APAC General Manager & Commercial Conference for 1,300 senior leaders, from the first brief to the final survey: the strategic narrative and all content, including the conference theme, the email programme, the app selection, and the companion app’s structure, interface and content, across 8 communications touchpoints. It reached 98% app engagement, and Hilton’s Global CEO called it their best-organised global event that year.
- Made the team 50% more productive by bringing AI tools and new brief-to-delivery processes into the studio, and coaching the team on getting higher-quality work from Claude and ChatGPT.
- Took the ’Right By You: The UOB Story’ gallery from a blank brief to a public launch that opened on time in March 2025, owning every piece of storytelling content along the way.
- Tripled RQAM’s LinkedIn engagement and follower base through a content-led identity programme tied to their corporate purpose.
- Partnered directly with senior leadership at UOB and DSO National Laboratories, turning dense business priorities into messaging platforms and engagement programmes they could actually act on.
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Jan 2022 – May 2023
Group Head of Operations
Bonsey Jaden
Ran operations and delivery across a 160-person, six-market agency spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, reporting straight to the CEO.
Jan 2022 – May 2023
Group Head of Operations
Bonsey Jaden
Ran operations and delivery across a 160-person, six-market agency spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, reporting straight to the CEO.
- Lifted average client profitability by 30%, measured on agency gross margin, by rebuilding workflow architecture, tightening resource planning and coaching market leads.
- Built executive dashboards covering pipeline, resourcing and operational health that six country heads and the CEO used to make faster, evidence-based calls.
- Standardised brief-to-delivery, quality and brand-consistency frameworks across all six markets, making output predictable at regional scale.
- Took direct ownership of hiring, performance reviews and development for the Malaysia client leadership team, cutting churn and holding onto key accounts.
- Oversaw Malaysia Airlines’ 2022 brand film from brief to final cut, keeping creative, production and brand standards aligned throughout.
- Acted as the CEO’s operational right hand, sequencing priorities and heading off risks before they surfaced across concurrent workstreams.
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Jun 2019 – Dec 2021
Group Head of Business
Bonsey Jaden
Owned commercial performance and account P&L across 20+ client teams in six markets.
Jun 2019 – Dec 2021
Group Head of Business
Bonsey Jaden
Owned commercial performance and account P&L across 20+ client teams in six markets.
- Grew AHC skincare account profitability by 60% in year-on-year revenue by reworking scope, renegotiating commercial terms and tightening delivery across the region.
- Won new business from Dole, Everise and Air Selangor, leading proposal development, resourcing and the recommendations that carried each competitive multi-market pitch.
- Carried full P&L responsibility across always-on programmes for Apple Fox Cider, Aeon, Cetaphil, Twilio and Mamee, balancing client goals against agency margin.
- Held onto clients and teams through steadier delivery, sharper brand consistency and clearer operating standards across markets.
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Jan 2016 – May 2019
Advertising Manager
The Emirates Group
Emirates Flight Training Academy & Group Brands
Created the full brand identity and go-to-market strategy for the Emirates Flight Training Academy, hitting a 100% cadet cohort fill within two months of launch.
Aug 2011 – May 2019
Advertising Manager: Emirates Skywards, Group Marketing, Employer Brand & Recruitment
The Emirates Group
Owned global communications and product marketing for the Emirates Skywards Frequent Flyer Programme, alongside group brand campaigns, the Emirates Flight Training Academy launch and global recruitment across 25 languages, seven agencies and six direct reports.
Emirates Skywards: Global Marketing
- Grew Skywards membership from 8M to 24M+ globally by directing integrated campaigns across email, CRM, digital and ATL in 25 languages, with full budget ownership throughout.
- Lifted the programme’s contribution to total airline revenue from 41% to over 45% by applying marketing-mix and media-mix modelling to channel investment and constant optimisation.
- Generated over USD 2M in incremental revenue through Tier Advancement, which upgraded over 1,500 members to the next tier. Drove a 50% jump in the active member base within six months through the Cash+Miles launch and Business Rewards refresh, both built on segmentation and CRM-led personalisation.
- Grew online sales by 35% through performance-led programmes and continuous channel-mix refinement.
- Ran structured A/B testing, segmentation and KPI frameworks across all activity, turning performance data into sharper targeting and conversion.
- Kept 80+ campaigns across The Emirates Group on time, on budget and compliant by owning approval workflows, messaging architecture and governance across creative, digital and delivery teams.
Emirates Flight Training Academy & Group Brands
- Created the full brand identity and go-to-market strategy for the Emirates Flight Training Academy, hitting a 100% cadet cohort fill within two months of launch.
- Led global recruitment campaigns for crew, pilots, engineering, dnata and university programmes across paid social, programmatic, search, OOH and sponsorship, expanding the year-on-year talent pipeline.
- Built destination Dubai and stopover campaigns with business units across the Group, feeding the wider gains in online sales and loyalty revenue contribution.
South America & Africa: Integrated Campaigns
- Delivered an average 20% year-on-year sales uplift across both regions, leading end-to-end campaign delivery on time and on budget with a direct team of three plus six creative and two media agencies.
- Adapted every campaign to local cultural, linguistic and commercial realities across a diverse market portfolio.
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Feb 2012 – Dec 2015
Advertising Manager
Emirates Airline
Led global communications for Emirates Skywards, eCommerce, Global Sales, MICE, the Business Rewards loyalty programme and Group Travel.
Emirates Skywards: Global Marketing
Grew Skywards membership from 8M to 24M+ globally by directing integrated campaigns across email, CRM, digital and ATL in 25 languages, with full budget ownership throughout.
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Aug 2011 – Jan 2012
Advertising Manager
Emirates Airline
Led the advertising campaigns across 5 markets in South America and 23 markets in Africa.
South America & Africa: Integrated Campaigns
Delivered an average 20% year-on-year sales uplift across both regions, leading end-to-end campaign delivery on time and on budget with a direct team of three plus six creative and two media agencies.
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Dec 2009 – Aug 2011
Communications Manager
AIA Singapore
Drove commercial revenue across AIA’s insurance portfolio through university partnerships and digital campaigns, managing the dedicated budget.
Dec 2009 – Aug 2011
Communications Manager
AIA Singapore
Drove commercial revenue across AIA’s insurance portfolio through university partnerships and digital campaigns, managing the dedicated budget.
- Beat youth-segment sales targets by launching data-informed microsite campaigns for university and campus audiences, managing three agency partners and tailoring messaging to each persona.
- Led full marketing and communications strategy across the insurance portfolio, strengthening brand credibility through integrated digital campaigns.
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Jun 2008 – Dec 2009
Relationship Manager
Go/React
Worked alongside the Managing Director on business process reorganisation, CRM programme development, contact strategy and integrated campaigns across multiple markets.
Jun 2008 – Dec 2009
Relationship Manager
Go/React
Worked alongside the Managing Director on business process reorganisation, CRM programme development, contact strategy and integrated campaigns across multiple markets.
- Grew key client revenue by 40% by building out CRM programmes, contact strategy and integrated campaign delivery.
- Beat every attendance projection on the Microsoft Windows Live launch across five markets, using CRM targeting and SEO to drive registrations.
- Grew the Qantas account by 25% after it followed me across from my previous agency.
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Apr 2005 – Jun 2008
Account Manager
M&C Saatchi
My introduction to agency life in Asia, working closely with creative teams, planners and clients.
Apr 2005 – Jun 2008
Account Manager
M&C Saatchi
My introduction to agency life in Asia, working closely with creative teams, planners and clients.
- Ran integrated campaign development across British Airways, Qantas, Pan Pacific Hotels, Ford, Peugeot and Land Rover, from creative briefs through to client delivery.
- Earned enough client trust that the Qantas account followed me to my next agency when M&C Saatchi closed.
- Supported the Regional Strategic Planning Director and Regional CEO on regional brand and tactical strategy across Southeast Asia.
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Awards & Recognition
Selected recognition.
Industry awards for the work, and the parallel discipline of athletics that sits behind it.
- 3 Bronzes · 2023Kancil Awards For the Malaysia Airlines ‘This is Malaysian Hospitality’ film: three craft Bronzes, for film direction, cinematography and music in film.
- 6th place · 2026World Masters Athletics Championships Shot put, age group. Daegu, Korea, 2026.
- Silver · 2025Asian Masters Athletics Championships Shot put, age group. Chennai, India, November 2025.
- Gold · 2024 to 2026Singapore Masters Athletics Shot put, age group. Three consecutive national titles, the path that led to the Asian Masters silver and sixth place at the World Masters.
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Credentials
Qualifications & certifications.
From academic foundations to ongoing professional development.
- CIM · Chartered Marketer · CIM
- MA · Marketing · Ulster University
- PG Dip · Digital Marketing · IDM
- ELDP · Leadership Development · Warwick University & The Emirates Group
- MA · Ancient History · UWTSD
- BSc · English with Sports Science · Loughborough University
Professional Development
- Generative AI Leader · Google Cloud
- UX Design Specialisation · Google
- Agentic AI & AI Agents for Leaders · Vanderbilt University
- Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork · Anthropic
Next room
Gallery 8. The reading room.
Perspectives. Through the oak doors at the foot of the ramp.