S4 Capital PLC (LON:SFOR), the advertising and marketing firm formed by WPP PLC (LON:WPP) founder Martin Sorrell earlier this year has nabbed Michel de Rijk from that much-bigger rival to be boss of its Asia Pacific operations.
The main market-listed firm said De Rijk will be CEO of its APAC arm, based in Singapore, and will start work "in early 2019".
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He joins from WPP's media investment management division GroupM, where he led the expansion of the [m]PLATFORM advanced media technology suite as APAC President from 2016-2018, before taking on the role of Global Chief Growth Officer at Performance Media Group earlier this year.
Sorrell, S4 Capital’s executive chairman, quit as FTSE 100-listed WPP’s CEO back in April amid unspecified misconduct allegations.
Commenting on de Rijk’s appointment, Sorrell said: "I'm delighted to welcome Michel to S4 Capital. He has the network and the skills to help MediaMonks and all of our future businesses in the region maintain impressive growth, while identifying further opportunities to grow by acquisition. No one could be more qualified to represent the S4 Capital difference."
In July, S4 outbid WPP for Dutch advertising firm MediaMonks Multimedia Holding BV. MediaMonks operates from offices in Shanghai and Singapore, and plans to expand into China, India, Australia, and Japan, the group said.
Earlier this month, S4 Capital confirmed press speculation that it is in talks to buy its second firm since listing, saying it is “in discussions with the owners of several digital marketing services businesses about a possible acquisition" as it "often is".
The Financial Times had reported that S4 was in talks to buy US programmatic advertising firm MightyHive for between US$140mln and US$200mln.
In afternoon trading on Thursday, S4 shares were 0.4% higher at 113.50p. WPP shares were 4% lower at 828.80p.