Ali Shabaz, chief creative officer of Grey Group Singapore, has been promoted to chief creative officer of Grey Group Southeast Asia, with immediate effect.

Shabaz will be overseeing offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

A multi-award winning creative, Shabaz has won at local and international award shows including Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (Cannes Lions), Effies, AMEs, Design and Art Direction (D&AD), The One Show, CLIO Awards, Spikes Asia and The Global Awards.

Recently, the prestigious Lions Innovation award and the highly-coveted Product Design award for the Life Saving Dot work won at the Cannes Lions – a first for an agency in Singapore. This recognition along with the seven Lions placed Grey Group Singapore as the best performing agency in Singapore at the 2015 Cannes Lions.

His strategic creative direction across digital and traditional platforms, saw Grey Group Singapore recognised as the best performing agency, two years in a row at Spikes Asia 2014 and 2015, with big pop-culture ideas such as ‘The Visual Dictionary’ for British Council and ‘Help Find Me’ for the Missing Persons Advocacy Network(MPAN).

The agency was also named Agency of the Year and Digital Agency of the Year at the Gong Show 2015.

In addition to his accolades, he was honoured “Advertising Professional of the Year” by the Institute of Advertising Singapore (IAS) and has been voted numerous times as one of the “Most Influential Creative Directors” in Singapore by the IAS.

A highly-recognised and respected creative, Shabaz has judged at Cannes Lions, AdFest, Spikes Asia, The Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame and the Kancil Awards. He has also been invited as a guest speaker for Spikes Asia, 4As and D&AD.

“Ali’s creativity, leadership and talent has played a major role in ensuring that 2015 was the best year yet for Grey Group Singapore. The advertising landscape is ever-evolving and he has not only adapted impressively but has taken the Singapore team to much greater heights. With Ali leading creativity in Southeast Asia, we are looking to further bolster our creative culture in the region,” Grey Group Asia Pacific chairman & CEO Nirvik Singh said.

“It is truly an honour to be leading the creatives across Southeast Asia. I am excited about the new role and challenges, and look forward to providing creative solutions for our clients across the region.”