We started as Zenith and the first media agency not only in Malaysia but in Asia. Today, I lead more than 80 keen intellectuals passionate about making a dent in our universe. We have been agency of the year twice in the last three years and innovation is in our blood and DNA.Today, we represent Vivendi and Havas in Malaysia. We are here to invent the future of communications and advertising by embracing the possibilities unearthed by unparalleled breadth of data, challenging ourselves to constantly at the frontier of evolving technology and with courage.Evolve or evaporate. Invictus!

Restaged the entire sales and marketing funnel within the first three months.Reduced cost per lead by 50% and improved cost per conversion/sign up by 20% garnering the highest intake for Sunway University at the highest intake volume for online MBA & Masters of Data Science for January 2023 intake within the 18 months of launch.Improved cost per lead at 7% for Singapore Institute of Management within the first three months.Setup data warehouse, data tagging, reset of marketing segmentation and restaged the entire marketing funnel across all funnels for partners in South East Asia.Introduced data ecosystems for testing of media and creative sandbox that improved business outcomes by 40% increase in revenue at the same budget.

Founded in 2015, Carsome is the largest integrated car e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Singapore. Carsome transacts more than 100,000 cars annually with a transaction value of over US$700 million. We work with more than 8,000 used car dealers who have collectively made more than 2.3M bids, ensuring that consumers are getting the best value.Overall brand and marketing leader and achieved the following within the first 11 monthsBaseline monthly non paid traffic grew month on month and by the end of 2021; Malaysia monthly non paid traffic grew by 78% y-o-y, Indonesia monthly non paid traffic grew by 10X (1,000+%) y-o-y, Thailand monthly non paid traffic grew by 3X (300+%) y-o-y, with Carsome emerging as the fastest growing website and traffic leader across all 3 markets within the ecommerce and classifieds category for 2021 (validated by Similarweb and regional publishers). Launched Carsome's first ever integrated brand campaign. Total volume growth of non paid search of Malaysia up to 400%, Indonesia and Thailand by over 10X (1,000+%). GA validates correlation of segment curiosity and index of intent with traffic from targeted segments from brand campaign activations. Restaged brand ethos, framework, brand tonality and communications framework and go to market plan.

I lead among all things; product, partnerships, customer journey, strategic communications, branding, internal policies and procedures, crisis management, events, media, creative, analytics, experiential and field marketing; encompassing all functions of sales, marketing, retail, and digital strategy from strategising, conceptualisation, to deployment, measurement and accountability for Malaysia's youngest telco operator.YTL has always been an innovative leader that stands for the principles of empowering the best of first world technology and accessibility but with third world affordability in a drive to empower a nation with democratisation of the best mobile experience in the hands of every Malaysians and YES embodies all that is true to move the nation and Malaysians forward as the nation's youngest telco. Launched Terragraph with Meta, a next frontier telecommunications solution aimed at solving last mile connectivity challenges around the globe with a wireless multi-gigabit technology. Developing a proof of concept in Georgetown built on existing street furniture to solve urban challenges of fibre trenching and exorbitant costs to a legacy UNESCO township that elevates connectivity to next gen standards. Second ever Terragraph and gigabit wireless urban solution launch globally and first ever in APAC.Revived subscriber acquisition from deficit to a growth of 10X base within 12 months of joining and restabilised foundation of segmentation and pricing and product in renewed focus as go to market including revamped ecosystem and customer touch point restaging. Oversaw all government, public relations and external stakeholder management in addition to commercial responsibilities and custodianship.

Founding partner and core team to relaunch the one of the fastest growing agency globally by Adweek. Outranking well-known global competitors with 210% growth from 2017-2019, Adweek ranked Entropia third in the Top 10 Large Agencies category (over 200 employees), and fifth in the Top 10 International Agencies category (both large and small), in its second annual Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Awards.Comprehensive business leader for Entropia working with clients across diverse industries ranging from AirAsia, Maybank, Etika Holdings (Pepsi brands bottler), Nippon Paint, AIA, Aeon, YES Telecommunications, Tesco, Ford, Pos Malaysia, Dutch Lady (Friesland Campina), Abbott, Petronas, Beiersdorf, PNB, and Estee Lauder in a strategic capacity offering full suite of marketing services straddling offline and online built on data. Responsible over all aspects of business growth and P&L growth of USD2M in 2016 and a talent pool of currently 100+ from a starting nucleus of 16 with regional work in Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Won the Chairman's Award, Grand Prix, Best Video Campaign, Best Cross Platform and Best Branding Campaign at the inaugural Drums Digital Trading Awards APAC (http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/10/27/entropia-sweep-the-board-the-inaugural-digital-trading-awards-apac).

Regional Senior Partner, Social Media, APAC with extended responsibilities to include new markets of China, India and Australia. Duties included leading regional remit discussions with clients in regional hubs while growing practice in local markets. Advancing reputation of social media practice for IPG Mediabrands in APAC while leading technological advancements and talent growth across all APAC markets.

Led the social media practice for IPG Mediabrands as Executive Director-Social Media, World Markets, Asia under the umbrella of Rally and Springcreek.Responsible for the overall P&L responsibilities and social media direction for the agency and it's clients in World Markets, Asia, having led one of Asia's largest social media practices of over 75 specialists from it's regional headquarters based out of Malaysia.Led a P&L of USD5M in revenue with annual growth of 20% y-o-y across the region. Duties in leading the regional social media agenda for the agency ranged from regional strategic direction and vision, operational setups, activations, strategy, analytics, and practice rollouts IPG Mediabrands across offices in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. Brands that continue to trust and be partners of Rally in World Markets Asia include KFC Holdings (KFC & Pizza Hut) in Malaysia and Hong Kong, Malaysia Airlines across 24 markets globally in 5 continents, DiGi (member of Telenor Group), Coca-Cola in Hong Kong and Thailand, Johnson & Johnson regionally, Microsoft in Thailand and S.Korea, Friesland Campina, CIMB, F&N Malaysia, Nestle, Subway, Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore), Crocodile (S.Korea), Drypers (SCA Hygiene), Cerebos (a member of Suntory Group), Solvil et Titus, and Mudah.my.Also led the social media technology hub based in Kuala Lumpur spearheading innovations in community management, social commerce, social CRM, influencer identification and activation, crisis management, and social media strategic thought leadership for IPG Mediabrands' emerging markets cluster. In this capacity, Derek leads the best practices and technology platforms knowledge transfer and leadership initiative within IPG Mediabrands' World Markets clusters which currently includes over 25 countries from the Nordics, South Europe and Latin America. Rally today is the brand of the social media practice for all World Market Clusters.

Appointed to the newly created role of Regional Director - Social Media, World Markets, Asia, at IPG Mediabrands as the leader of the social media practice for IPG Mediabrands in the region. Managed IPG Mediabrand's and Rally's own bluechip clients ranging from KFC Holdings, MAS, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Dutchlady, CIMB, Telekom Malaysia, F&N Malaysia, Nestle, Taylor's Education Group, and Munchy's overlooking overall social media direction for the agency and it's clients in Malaysia and across the region. Upheld the mandate in leading the regional social media practice which included duties from regional setups, activations, long term plans and overall operations for IPG Mediabrands. This included business development for each of the markets and hiring and deployment of assets respectively in setting up offices and best practices for the practice. Responsibilities also include leading the social media technology hub based in Kuala Lumpur.Rally is a full fledged social media arm of IPG Mediabrands and operates in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand. A certified Google Adwords Professional with a speciality in Display. Credentials can be found at https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/ind?id=07885629985211598897&hl=en

Joined IPG Mediabrands as a pioneer of the social media practice for Malaysia as Head of Community Strategy part of IPG Worldwide Group, managing clients such as Taylor's Education Group, Johnson & Johnson, Dutchlady, Telekom Malaysia, F&N Malaysia, Nestle, and Munchy's overlooking overall social media direction for the agency and it's clients. A certified Google Adwords Professional with a speciality in Display. Credentials can be found at https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/ind?id=07885629985211598897&hl=en

Lecturer of Digital and Social Media Marketing module for eMBA programme of Open University Malaysia. Prepared module syllabus and conducts 40 hour module lecture session per semester along with group and individual coursework

To oversee regional development of community management, and analytic & insights core functionality and offering from Vocanic across all offices. Duties including developing best practices and global standards for community managers and analytic & insights professionals. To provide consultancy and best practice sharing to clients as thought leadership agenda for the group.

Started Vocanic's practice and office in Kuala Lumpur from scratch. 1. Digital strategy conceptualisation and execution for Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media activations and community management continuity2. Client engagement and liaison for Vocanic in Malaysia. Clientele list includes DiGi, Pfizer, Sara Lee, British Council Malaysia and one of Malaysia's leading financial institutions.3. Social media monitoring and competitor analysis4. Overall lead for Malaysia operations5. Speaker at social media and word of mouth conferencesEvents having spoken at for 2010:a. Open Web Asia 2010b. Social Media for Business 2010c. Brandfest 2010 (Sep 2010)6. Regular contributor on social media for Brand Equity

Founding member of AirAsia's social media presence and strategy.To create and spearhead all social media initiatives. In essence, to lead the following initiatives;1. AirAsia blog, www.blog.airasia.com, ranked first in the region among corporates2. AirAsia Facebook, www.facebook.com/AirAsia, ranked second globally at present among transportation and travel sectors3. AirAsia Twitter accounts, www.twitter.com/AirAsiaDotCom (ranked first in the region among corporates), www.twitter.com/airasiablog4. AirAsia Flickr, www.flickr.com/AmazingAirAsia5. AirAsia Youtube, www.youtube.com/amazingairasia6. AirAsia CEO’s social media accounts, www.tonyfernandesblog.com (ranked among top CEO blogs in the region), www.facebook.com/tonyfernandes, www.mail.tonyfernandesblog.com, www.twitter.com/tonyfernandes (nominated for twitter personality finalist)7. Created first online blog to be a pilot competition (recognition from Reuters, Blog Herald, World News and international media agencies) Links: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/5/nation/3407882&sec=nationhttp://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/11/21/central/5120850&sec=centralhttp://blog.airasia.com/index.php/we-heard-the-world-wants-to-be-a-pilotDuties involve-1. Spearheading each and every branding, marketing and communications initiative and campaign on social media channels (to date up to over 30 campaigns)2. Creation and analysis of social media performances (free online tools and new ventures into new markets such as wayn.com for UK markets)3. On the ground tactical campaigns to match social media buzz (new destination launches, product launches and branding insights including sporting and entertainment sponsorships)4. Heading strategic marketing initiatives into new tool developments for internal usage and advices on any involvement in online monitoring of reputation and branding5. Report to regional heads of departments and Group CEO

Projects handled in corporate communications:-1. Synergy Drive merger exercise2. Group Advertising & Studio3. Departmental operations4. PR & Media affairs5. Group Corporate Social Responsibility6. Website, internal portal anddepartmental livelink implementation7. Group branding initiatives8. Minggu Amanah Saham arrangementsProjects in Group Strategy & Business Development:-1. Chairman’s Office2. M&A transactions (project Stardust and project Emerald) including due diligence and execution of transaction3. GLC Transformation office initiatives and project planning4. Sime Darby Lecture Series5. Economic and financial research (Khazanah reporting and economic papers published by the Group). Including leading research on plantation sectorial reports6. Bursa Malaysia Stock Exchange corporate finance complianceExposed across all functions of strategy and business development in the context of a Government Linked Company (GLC) and the financial modelling activities required for business expansion and selection.Also has operational strategic experience in the planning and operational office of the Group’s Transformational Management Office reporting directly to the Group COO. Coordinated transformational change in operations and culture working with champions and both divisional and departmental leaders.Worked both in teams (Legal, Finance, Treasury and Corporate Finance) to carry out crucial divestments and study of potential companies for M&A. Developed an understanding of financial works and selection of growth in a multinational in diverse business environment.

1) Production of regional training events for corporations in various areas including technical and soft skills2) Project management of resources and process flows of the entire projects (design, creative direction, selection and engagement of trainers, market research). Managed multiple projects up to 3-4 events at a time3) Every project was profitable (300% returns) and satisfactory client feedback on trainers and event

1) Worked in both personal and group efforts in personal taxation and Double Taxation Advisory for corporations2) Restructuring of taxation structures and advisory on tax treatment3) Personal treatment of client's income tax, international trade of talent and outbound tax client from multinationals4) Establishment of international talent exchange programme for Ernst & Young Malaysia

I was trust into the working team on my first team and drew backup site plans for business continuity plans on day two. Involved in all aspects of BCP from writing of plans, to testing and handover of BCP plansWorked on project management and controlled budgets and managed meetings with all levels from the CEO of KWSP, Datuk Azlan Mansor to presenting proposals which we eventually won a long term contract from Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad.One example that would sum up my tenure in PWC would be the incident in my third month when I was involved in a proposal presentation the entire day, raced back to the office for amendments until 11 and raced back to the airport at 6 in the morning and we won the deal.