Selected work
Three cases that show the operating logic across launches and lifecycle, organisations, and regulated categories. The work, the decisions made, the systems that ran underneath.
Case 1
Mercedes-Benz
A brand operating system across the customer lifecycle
Team X governance. 19 APAC markets. 1,500 specialists in 47 cities globally.
The brief for APAC ECD within Team X was not to run launches. It was holding global brand consistency across every customer touchpoint, from acquisition to retention, while letting local teams adapt for cultural relevance. The six lifecycle moments below show how that system worked in practice across 2020 to 2025. Each was a leadership call made within global governance, with the constraint that the work had to land authentically in local markets without losing brand coherence at the global level.
Launch
E-Class 2024. EQB X243. EQG concept showcase. GLB facelift.
The decision: anchor each launch in global Mercedes-Benz brand intent while letting regional creative leads hold the editorial call on local cultural translation. Cycles ran on the Team X playbook, with the operating logic that consistency lives in system design, not in centralised approval. Singapore led the E-Class regional launch and EQB rollout under this model.
Luxury craft and limited editions
G-Class "Icons of Unique." AMG A 45 S Limited Edition. G-63 Singapore Edition (15 units).
The decision: scarcity-driven work runs on a different logic than mainstream launches. Higher craft, tighter audiences, deeper storytelling. The Singapore G-63 Edition built buyer connection through hand-finished detail and direct-to-collector communications rather than reach-driven media. Local cultural specificity, premium production, no compromise on brand voice.
Brand experience and retail
Mercedes-EQ Concept Store launch and ongoing communications.
The decision: a concept store needs a brand operating system, not a launch campaign. Built rolling communications architecture around the store as a permanent expression of the Mercedes-EQ brand, layered with seasonal product moments. The store had to function as both a retail asset and a brand asset, communicating EV credibility to audiences who had never considered Mercedes electric.
Service and retention
"Beyond Instincts" Service Retention 2023. “expert care for every holiday” service retention 2024. "Come home to expert care" Authorised Dealer Servicing 2026.
The decision: retention earns less attention than launches but drives more revenue. Service communications needed to feel as premium as the product itself. The brief was to elevate after-sales from transactional maintenance to a continuation of ownership experience, anchoring loyalty on craft and expertise rather than convenience or price.
After-sales and ownership
Digital Extras Campaign for ongoing owner programmes.
The decision: ownership extensions sit inside brand, not finance. Reframed Digital Extras from a transactional add-on into a continuation of the Mercedes-Benz ownership story. Worked routinely with regional sales and client Legal on disclosure, claims, and messaging within regulatory constraints, holding brand voice across the compliance boundary.
Brand-led sustainability
EQS x MINISHI Studios. GreenHouse 2024.
The decision: sustainability earns brand credit only when it carries brand voice, not when it sits in an ESG silo. For EQS x MINISHI at the Mercedes-Benz Concept Store, partnered with Minishi Studios on a limited run of 65 miniature EQS collectables customised by artists, turning sustainability into design culture rather than CSR messaging. GreenHouse 2024 extended the logic into a branded sustainability platform integrated into the customer experience calendar. Both anchored sustainability claims in the Mercedes-EQ flagship product rather than an abstract commitment.
outcomes
40% EV sales growth and 25% ICE growth across APAC. Review cycles cut from 4 weeks to 2. Operating costs reduced 30%. The brand operating system this work was built on remains active post-exit.
Case 2
Building RAPP's APAC creative organisation from zero to 120+
Seven markets in three years. Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Sydney, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur. One of three founding hires. The brief was not to win clients. It was to build a regional creative practice from scratch. Operating model, hiring bar, governance, all of it. Had to hold under live delivery from day one.
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 10 senior leaders into APAC. 80% retention. 80% promoted under tenure. The same logic runs into mentoring. Senior leaders and junior hires alike, with investment going into strategy, ideation, and quality of craft. The things volume cannot teach.
the Operating model as the first deliverable.
The review process, hiring rubric, onboarding system, pitch framework, and quality assurance model were built before any client work was delivered. The principle: the operating model is the first deliverable of any new practice. Personality scales until it doesn't. Systems compound. The practice still runs on these fundamentals today.
Governance built to scale, not centralise.
Designed the creative review framework, decision rights matrix, and escalation paths. Review cycles fell from 4 weeks to 2 by removing duplicative approvals and consolidating accountability into named leads. The model gave local-market leads explicit decision-making rights within global brand guardrails. No more crashing every decision up to Singapore.
outcomes
Practice scaled from zero to 120+ across seven markets in three years. Review cycles halved. Operating costs reduced 30%. Multiple new business pitches won, including the network's most demanding accounts. RAPP later named Campaign UK Digital Transformation Agency of the Year (2024 and 2025), recognition of an operating culture set in this build.
Case 3
Commercial accountability across regulated categories
Financial services. Enterprise technology. Healthcare. Automotive.
Most senior creative leaders are not asked to operate inside regulated categories. The ones who do learn to work with compliance as a creative constraint rather than an obstacle. This case is built from the work across those categories, where brand decisions ran through Legal and Compliance as routine, not exception.
Brand work that survives Legal review.
Routine partnership with client Legal and Compliance teams on messaging, claims, and disclosures. Acted as a trusted decision-maker on issues management and high-visibility client moments across financial services, enterprise tech, healthcare, and automotive. The discipline: keep regulatory risk and brand opportunity in separate conversations, so neither dictates to the other.
Regional clients, global complexity.
Led brand and communications for global enterprises whose work required regional sensitivity and global consistency simultaneously. PayPal merchant programmes across APAC. AWS regional campaigns. Juniper Networks enterprise communications. Google APAC work. Johnson & Johnson surgical brand build in Shanghai. Standard Chartered and UOB financial services brand work (at Hakuhodo, earlier in career). Each required adapting the global narrative to the local regulatory and cultural context without breaking either.
Brand at the same table as growth.
Held $80–100M annual revenue accountability at peak. Operated as a commercial partner to finance, strategy, and regional CEOs, meaning brand decisions translated into revenue, retention, and efficiency conversations, not engagement metrics. The principle: brand sits at the same table as sales planning, not downstream of it. At Team X, this was the operating norm. The discipline carries forward.