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Bastion promotes Cheuk Chiang to group CEO
Cheuk Chiang and Fergus Watts of Bastion
Bastion’s Cheuk Chiang has been promoted to the role of group chief executive officer, effective from July 1.
His role will be focused on driving the continued growth of the global Bastion business with key clients, services, regional expansion and multi market integrated campaigns.
Co-founder and current group CEO Jack Watts will step into the role of executive director where he will focus on strategic growth opportunities.
The leadership transition will be overseen by Bastion’s chair Fergus Watts, who was group CEO for the first 10 years.
“This is more than just a leadership change, it’s a natural progression for our business,” he says.
“Cheuk’s appointment is the culmination of a 5-year plan to ensure Bastion does not fall victim to what hampers most agency’s growth, which is an ongoing dependency on the founders. This business is bigger than any one person. It is and always has been about delivering exceptional results for our clients.
“Our ambition is to build one of the strongest independent agencies in the world. Having done that across Australia and New Zealand, it is now time to cement our strategy across the USA and focus our further expansion into Asia. Cheuk is the right person to lead our people, clients and partners into the next chapter putting them in a position of strength and I look forward to supporting him in unlocking the full potential of our global network.”
Extraordinary journey
“The past 16 years have been an extraordinary journey to build a global business from scratch in any industry is something rare,” says Jack Watts.
“An integral part of the growth and longevity of Bastion has been our continued evolution, knowing that what got us here, won’t get us there.
“Working with Cheuk as CEO of our ANZ business over the past year has been eye-wateringly fun. He possesses a remarkable skill set, with the proven experience to lead not just a team of 350, but teams as large as 3,000. I’m excited to see the impact that Cheuk will now have across our broader group.
“Personally, I’m energised to spend a lot more time working with our people to solve our clients’ biggest problems with new offerings and capabilities that help give them a competitive advantage,” Watts adds.
Decades of experience
Chiang brings decades of experience leading international marketing and communications organisations across Dentsu and Omnicom. He also has deep experience working across the APAC region and has led creative, media, data and technology businesses building integrated models that deliver end-to-end solutions for modern marketers.
“It’s an honour to take the reins from Jack and lead Bastion into its next phase,” says Chiang. “We are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of the modern marketer through our worldclass integrated end-to-end offering. Our global platform enables us to deliver truly integrated, best-in-class work with local insight and I’m energised to build on this strong foundation.
“Looking ahead, our vision is to scale Bastion to be the world’s strongest independent network driving innovation, embracing emerging technologies and expanding our global footprint while staying true to our entrepreneurial spirit.
“A lot of agencies talk a good game when it comes to integration. However, very few can deliver that with deep expertise. At Bastion, we are proud to consistently deliver truly integrated campaigns that put our clients in a position of strength. Bastion has always been very humble when it comes to promoting itself, however it’s time that the world sees what we are truly capable of,” Chiang adds.
