APPROACH
The five principles below describe how I actually work, built over twenty years across 30+ markets, multiple agencies, and one global integrated operating model. Each one is the answer to a problem I've seen repeat at scale.
operating principles
Systems over campaigns.
Campaigns expire. Systems compound. I build operating models, decision rights, and governance frameworks that let creative scale across markets without losing quality, speed, or compliance. The work I am proudest of is rarely a single piece of communication. It is the structure underneath that lets the work keep happening after I leave.
Leadership before volume.
I hire senior leaders before expanding execution teams. Systems fail without owners. The trade-off is a slower ramp. The return is durability, reduced escalation, and a bench that holds under pressure. At RAPP, I hired ten senior leaders into a 120+ organisation. 80% retention. 80% promoted under tenure.
Local intelligence within global intent.
Global intent sets direction. Local intelligence shapes expression. Decisions sit with accountable leaders closest to context. No erasure of cultural nuance in service of consistency. The skill is knowing what to hold and what to release.
Commercial accountability anchored to brands.
Creative choices carry ownership. Outcomes matter as much as expression. Brand decisions tied to revenue, retention, and efficiency, not engagement metrics. At Team X for Mercedes-Benz this meant brand sat at the same table as sales planning, not downstream of it.
Empathy as an operating discipline.
Strong performance follows psychological safety. Expectations explicit, feedback direct, trust earned through consistency. I have led teams through restructures, integrations, and acquisitions. The work continued because the team knew where they stood.
SCOPE
Across 30+ markets, 50+ global enterprise brands, and six industry categories: financial services, technology, automotive, healthcare, consumer, and luxury. Reported to the APAC President at RAPP with a dotted line to the Global CCO. Led 120+ person organisations at peak with $80–100M annual revenue accountability. Operated inside Omnicom's global governance model for Mercedes-Benz.
Endorsements
Troy Hitch
Global CCO at Omnicom/RAPP/Track
“Joe Tee is one of those exceptional creative leaders who can build an organization from the ground up while simultaneously elevating the work that defines it. As one of RAPP's first three founding hires in APAC, I've watched her help scale what started as a startup nucleus in Singapore into a seven-office network at its peak, hiring and shaping high-performing creative teams across cultures that couldn't be more different from one another.
What sets Joe apart is her ability to operate at the intersection of strategic thinking, creative craft and commercial reality. She creates ideas grounded in cultural intelligence and insight that perform in the boardroom and in the real world. That combination is exceedingly uncommon. Teams across EMEA, Europe, North America and ANZ have come to rely on her as a trusted partner for global pitches and purpose-driven campaigns, and she delivers every single time.
Joe has spent eight years presenting in boardrooms across industries, helping secure multimillion-dollar wins. But her impact goes far beyond pitching. She's an empathic yet direct leader who builds trust, clarity and accountability. She mentors emerging talent into confident, capable leaders. And she brings serious operational discipline, bridging creativity with systems, process and organizational structure in ways that allow great work to actually happen.
She's also embraced my philosophy of "A Million Little Big Ideas" (ensuring every audience receives precise, thoughtful, culturally relevant communication) and championed it with her teams across APAC. She leads with curiosity, rigor and collaboration, welcomes tough questions early, and creates environments where teams work as one with clients.
Joe is a world-class creative leader with two decades of experience shaping organizations across APAC and proven global collaboration credentials. Vision, craft depth, commercial intuition and organizational leadership, all in one person. I highly recommend her.”
Daniel Menges
President APAC | Marketing Transformation & Growth Leader | Data-Driven Strategy, Customer Experience & Digital Innovation | RAPP | Omnicom
“I am pleased to provide this personal recommendation for Joelene, who served as Regional Executive Creative Director of RAPP APAC for eight years.
In her role, Joelene led the creative discipline across the Asia Pacific region, overseeing diverse teams across multiple markets and cultures. She combined strong regional leadership with a genuinely hands-on working style, remaining deeply involved in the work while empowering local leaders and creative teams to do their best work. This balance is rare, and it is one of her defining strengths as a creative leader.
A core part of Joelene’s impact was her ability to fuse strong creative thinking with digital innovation and precision marketing. She consistently pushed teams to move beyond traditional campaign thinking and toward data-informed, customer-centric creativity, ensuring that ideas were not only compelling, but also measurable, scalable, and effective across channels and markets.
Over the years, Joelene led teams to deliver consistently high-quality, world-class work for some of the world’s most demanding and iconic brands, including Nike, Cartier, and most recently Mercedes-Benz. Her work demonstrated not only creative excellence, but also a deep understanding of how creativity, technology, and data must work together to drive meaningful business outcomes.
As APAC President, I greatly valued Joelene’s partnership as a core member of the APAC Leadership Team. She was a trusted collaborator, a clear and thoughtful voice in leadership discussions, and someone who helped shape how RAPP APAC evolved its creative product in line with our focus on digital, data, and precision marketing.
I have no hesitation in recommending Joelene. She is an exceptional creative leader, a committed partner, and someone who consistently raises the standard of the teams and organizations she works with.”
Wolfgang Kaller
Growth & CRM Lead Omnicom Precision Marketing Germany
“I worked closely with Joelene for many years while building RAPP Singapore and APAC from a team of three to a 120+ strong organisation across multiple offices. She was instrumental to that growth.
Joe combines strong strategic thinking with highly effective creative leadership, consistently turning ideas into solutions that drive real business results. Her work goes beyond aesthetics — she thinks in terms of customer journeys, products, media formats and whatever best solves the business problem. At the same time, she also knows when things need to get done with attention to detail in the highest quality.
She is hardworking, principled, and highly respected by both clients and teams. I would strongly recommend her to any organisation looking for a creative leader who delivers at scale across complex touchpoints.”
Career ARC
Twenty years across MNCs and local agencies, independent practice, and the Omnicom network. Built foundational craft early, scaled into executive scope through senior leadership roles. Most recently APAC Executive Creative Director at RAPP from 2017 to 2025, joining as one of three founding hires and growing the practice from zero to 120+ across seven markets.
The work that put these principles into practice sits in Selected Work.
For specific cases or a conversation, let’s get in touch.