iris elevates Luke Nathans as APAC CEO

iris elevates Luke Nathans as APAC CEO

Luke Nathans

MUMBAI: iris, a marketing and advertising agency, has promoted Luke Nathans as its regional CEO for Asia Pacific (APAC). He was earlier regional development director for the region.

He will continue to focus on expanding the agency‘s operations in APAC, Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

As CEO-APAC, Nathans will report into the iris joint global CEOs Ian Millner and Stewart Shanley.

Continuing to be based out of Singapore, Nathans will be responsible for the agency‘s client base in the region which includes Diageo, adidas, Tiger, Coca-cola, Shell, Philips and Heineken. He will continue to chair the Asia Pacific board of iris, which comprises the leaders of iris‘ offices in Asia as well as its leaders in creative, planning, consulting and digital.

Nathans will play a key role in iris‘ forthcoming entry into MENA as the agency eyes a number of locations in the region. iris recently entered Indonesia, launching a licensing deal with Indonesian agency Nava+. iris‘ current headcount in Asia stands at 400 spanning its APAC offices in Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Shanghai, Jakarta and Delhi.

Millner said, "Luke has been at iris for four years now and has been a key part of driving the development of the agency proposition, the agency product, and key client relationships in Indonesia, India, China, Singapore and Australia. As the network grows, it will become more important to release more autonomy internationally to enable iris to continue empowering talented and entrepreneurial people in the diverse and exciting markets we now operate in. Luke has given iris a real edge across Asia, as we start to become a real threat to the global networks."

Nathans said, "We‘re increasing our footprint significantly in a few key markets before the end of the year, so I‘m looking forward to the exciting times ahead."

Nathans was promoted as regional development director for Asia Pacific in August 2011, following his appointment at iris as managing director of its Asia Pacific experiential arm. Prior to joining Iris, he has worked with agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne, Belgiovane Williams Mackay, G2, The One Centre and TBWA Tequila UK.