Thomas Yang left DDB Group Singapore after 16 years to join Leo Singapore in an undisclosed senior role. Yang held the Executive Creative Director title and ran art direction across DDB's Singapore operation, a shop that generates estimated annual billings of $45 million across FMCG, finance, and automotive categories for the Omnicom-owned network.

The move completes mid-January, Marketing Interactive reported. Yang joined DDB Singapore in 2009 when the office still ran McDonald's regional work and held Volkswagen's Southeast Asia account. He rose through art direction to the ECD post in 2018, overseeing roughly 35 creatives in the Singapore studio. DDB Singapore has shed three multinational accounts since 2022—Volkswagen to Grabarz & Partner, Philips to 72andSunny, and a portion of the McDonald's brief to Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai. The office now anchors on Lifebuoy, National Environment Agency, and StarHub.

Leo Singapore operates as the Leo Burnett nameplate under Publicis Groupe with estimated annual billings near $62 million. The shop recently won Samsung's Southeast Asia digital mandate and holds long-tenure relationships with Maybank and Ministry of Health Singapore. Publicis restructured its Singapore creative units in October 2024, consolidating Saatchi & Saatchi's operations into Leo Burnett's Millenia Tower headquarters. That consolidation freed 12 senior slots across strategy and creative leadership. Yang's hire suggests Leo is filling those vacancies with proven operators rather than promoting internally, a pattern visible when the shop recruited Ogilvy's Eunice Yoon as Chief Strategy Officer in November 2024.

The timing aligns with pitch activity. Singapore Airlines, Singtel, and DBS Bank have active creative reviews expected to shortlist by late February 2025. All three represent $80 million to $120 million in combined regional billings. Leo Singapore participated in preliminary discussions for the Singtel review, according to two agency executives who requested anonymity. Adding an ECD with 16 years of continuity at a competitor strengthens Leo's ability to staff multiple concurrent pitches without cannibalizing existing account teams.

Operators should track whether DDB Singapore promotes internally or recruits externally to backfill Yang's role. An external hire would signal Omnicom views the Singapore office as requiring stabilization rather than growth. Watch for Leo Singapore's new business announcements between now and March 2025—if Yang's hire correlates with a win in the Singapore Airlines or Singtel reviews, it confirms Publicis is using senior talent acquisition as a pitch-enablement strategy. Also worth monitoring: whether other Omnicom creatives in Singapore, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur follow Yang's path in the next 90 days, which would indicate a retention issue rather than a single poaching event.

DDB Group Singapore has not yet named Yang's replacement. The office reports to DDB Asia-Pacific Chairman Tan Kien Eng, who runs regional operations from the Singapore hub and will likely decide by February 2025 whether to restructure the creative leadership model or maintain the standalone ECD position.