President and Vice President for the 4As

The New faces of the 4As

Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) has appointed Andrew Lee as their new President. He is Managing Director of Havas Kuala Lumpur and has previously served for two years as the 4As Vice President. While, Aaron Cowie, Chief Executive Officer of TBWA\ Kuala Lumpur, was elected as the new Vice President.

The election of the new 4As Council was held at the association’s Biennial General Meeting (BGM).

Andrew and Aaron expressed their appreciation for the remarkable contribution by Dato’ Johnny Mun, the outgoing 4As President and Council members, particularly in the areas of talent growth, education, professional practice and agency remuneration.

“My primary mission is to safeguard the business and creative interests of the 4As members through membership drive, educational opportunities and wider collaborations with our media partners and professional agencies, including the Media Specialists Association (MSA), Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA), Malaysian Digital Association (MDA), Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association (MNPA) and Malaysian Association of Advertising Filmmakers (PPFIM),” said Andrew. “It is our responsibility to ensure inclusiveness in order to continue growing the industry.”

Aaron added that the new Council would implement improvements to the existing initiatives where necessary to re-energise the industry to be more vibrant.

“We need to re-define ourselves as an industry to adapt to the continual changes in terms of technology and the new way of communicating,” said Aaron.

Apart from existing outreach programmes with tertiary educational institutions and certification programmes, the 4As will continue working closely with the Institute for Practitioners of Advertising (IPA) UK to arm advertising professionals with updated industry knowledge, new skill sets and tools.

The pledge to nurture the industry extends beyond the qualification programmes.

“We have allocated approximately RM50,000 worth of scholarships for full-time employees of 4As member agencies as part of our commitment to raising industry standards and professionalism by fostering continuous professional development,” stated Lee. “We strongly encourage industry practitioners, especially entry-level executives, to optimise the available resources provided by the association to hone their skills.”

The newly elected 4As Council Members include APD Digital Services, Arachnid, BBDO Malaysia, Crush Communications, Ellipsis, Geometry Global, IF Interactive, M&C Saatchi, Naga DDB, and Oxygen Advertising.