John Deschner, an accounts guy who joined the Deutsch organization in 2011, is headed to Malaysia to run Ogilvy’s operations in the Southeast Asian country.
A statement from a Deutsch spokesperson on Deschner:
“John is a force in the digital space. He’s had a big impact on the culture and work at Deutsch, and while we’re sad to see him go, we’re extremely proud of what he’s accomplished here and know he’ll bring valuable skills to his new position as CEO of Ogilvy Malaysia. We’re thrilled about the opportunities that lie ahead for Desch — we’re big fans.”
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Here’s Deschner’s own take:
It’s official – The Deschners are moving to Kuala Lumpur. Anyone know anyone cool in Malaysia?
— john deschner (@jdeschner) July 26, 2015
Deutsch L.A. hired Deschner four years ago to assist on the accounts side with HTC, and he was promoted to EVP/group account director and later digital account management positions. Previous agency world gigs include client services director at AKQA–where he worked on VW, Delta, USPS and ESPN–and a yearlong stint at CP+B, where he handled interactive work for Domino’s.
Deschner would appear to be Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia’s first chief executive officer, and his arrival follows a couple of recent C-level changes.
First Anand Badami, who had been group managing director/country head for Malaysia since 2011, moved to Singapore to take on a larger global client leadership role. With his departure, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific COO Ken Wertime became chairman of Ogilvy Malaysia, stating at the time that Malaysia is “a key market not only in ASEAN but also the Asia Pacific region.”
Deschner’s hire is part of a larger effort to ensure that the Kuala Lumpur office (which also houses an Ogilvy PR operation) will remain “ahead of rapid changes in the market,” though the precise organizational hierarchy is not clear at the moment.
Expect to see more changes within the Ogilvy organization worldwide following June’s news that Global CEO Miles Young would retire at the end of the summer and return to his alma mater Oxford University.