MediaCom has appointed Alex Crowther as new CEO for APAC operations. Former CEO, Kevin Clarke, who has led MediaCom in the region for the past 5 years, will work alongside Alex to ensure a smooth transition before he takes up his new role as CEO of GroupM Thailand in September. Thailand has been Kevin's base for many years and he takes on the new assignment based on his desire to return to a local market role. Alex will continue to build on Kevin's strategy of promoting MediaCom's People First Better Results philosophy. He will work with all 21 offices in the region to ensure that clients receive the agency's very best products, tools and services, including the Real World Street initiative and specialist interactive, planning and econometric tools. Additionally, as part of the People First programme, his brief will be to continue to grow the company's talent pool across the region, encouraging a nurturing environment that ensures MediaCom employs the most talented and motivated staff in the industry. Alex joins MediaCom from Omnicom-controlled integrated network DAVINCI Selectwork. Based in the US, he was President/CEO Americas and Australia and as co-founder was instrumental in the company's rapid growth from a standing start to a presence in more than 60 markets in just seven years. "Kevin has done a fantastic job at MediaCom over the past five years, turning what was a small agency into one of the region's major media agency networks that now serves many of the world's largest advertisers. When I took up my global role, I was incredibly impressed by the culture of the agency in APAC and the way the markets worked together as a coherent network. Our business' success in the region is a testament to Kevin's leadership," said Stephen Allan, MediaCom Worldwide's Chairman and CEO. "Having decided he wanted to return to a local market role, I'm delighted that Kevin has chosen to stay in the GroupM family, thereby maintaining his connections with MediaCom. And I am confident that in Alex we have found a worthy successor to Kevin, someone who will continue our drive to make MediaCom the number one agency network across Asia Pacific." On his appointment, Alex said "I am extremely happy to be a part of the MediaCom family during this exciting period in our development and growth. With Kevin's fine leadership until now across the region, the great team we have and a vision I absolutely believe in, we will be unstoppable." As one of the youngest, yet fastest growing agency networks in the Asia Pacific region, MediaCom has over 750 staff across 21 offices in 15 countries across the region. Major client gains in recent years include various P&G assignments in India, Philippines, China, Japan and Korea, and also Dell across the entire region. Mark Patterson, CEO of GroupM Asia Pacific, said, "Kevin took on a monumental task back in late 2005 of leading an embryonic network with little scale and expertise and forming a fully fledged regional agency with all the capabilities required of a GroupM agency. He spearheaded the development of MediaCom into a first class business with first class clients in a matter of months, landing global clients and local business as well as converting significant parts of P&G to MediaCom. He led that transformation. Alex has a very sound foundation on which to take up the MediaCom mantle with full GroupM support." Mark continued, "Kevin is the ideal man to lead our whole Thai operation. It is a big business with a bright future under Kevin's leadership. He has lived in and loved Thailand for more than 12 years, and led Mindshare there for eight of those. I couldn't think of a better leader."