Hot on the heels of a remarkable $2 million pre-series A funding, Mash, the creative powerhouse empowering innovative brands to thrive in Asia-Pacific markets, reveals its new leadership team.
Damien Miller takes charge as the client partnerships & culture director (APAC), while Rich Akers ascends to creative partnerships director, Asia, and Amy Williams assumes the position of Creative Partnerships Director for ANZ.
L-R: Damien Miller, Rich Akers & Amy Williams
It is the first major restructure since the company was founded five years ago, with Mash’s remote working model allowing for a spread of leadership across six cities in both Australia and Asia. The decentralised approach means that Mash’s leadership team brings a plethora of varied perspectives and experiences to the table while facilitating closer interactions and cultural understanding with local markets.
Miller has been promoted to the newly created position of client partnerships & culture director. Miller joined the creative technology company in 2021 from Vice Media and his new mission is clear: to fortify Mash’s inherent remote-working culture, amplify the client partnerships team, and fuel the company’s expansion across new territories. With an impressive community of over 200 creative professionals, affectionately known as “Mashers.”
Damien Miller said: “The past two years at Mash have been transformative, with Tash and Sarah empowering our team to create groundbreaking, culturally intuitive campaigns for our clients, and help raise the quality of work for creatives around the world. I’m thrilled to collaborate with them and the entire Mash team as we enter our next phase of growth, driven by a shared purpose and a commitment to everyone’s success.”
Mash CEO & co-founder Tash Menon said: “We are incredibly fortunate to have a leadership team of this calibre as we propel our growth across Asia-Pacific, and embark on the journey of scaling through a new technology platform. Although we have a different operating model which requires some unlearning from everyone, we are first and foremost a cultural practice and Damien, Rich and Amy have been integral to our business success to date. Their collective ability to scale up from large retained clients, and down to fast growing scale-ups across the APAC region all whilst managing a remote creative workforce of over 200 Mashers – is nothing short of phenomenal. Mash today operates across 31 countries in a completely remote fashion and everyone understands how they should be playing, thanks largely to these three exceptional humans fostering what makes Mash, MASH through each of our interactions.”
Akers and Williams began their journey with the company as Mashers themselves. As highly experienced creative professionals bringing over 35+ years experience across the APAC region, Akers and Williams explained that the freedom to choose what projects they wanted to be a part of was what excited them most about the Mash model.
“Mash is built around putting culture and people first and that’s what first attracted me to the company. Coming from a background of creative roles in startups to agencies across China and Asia, I love the hustle that comes with working on innovative projects in unique markets – and of course talented people! As we grow as a company, I believe Mash has an amazing opportunity to capitalise on our momentum in Asia, and solidify our reputation as the region’s go-to for bespoke creative solutions, with Singapore, India and Japan being of particular focus for us,” said Akers.
Harnessing the fact that APAC markets have contributed a staggering 50 per cent of Mash’s revenue in the past five years, the newly appointed Asia creative partnerships director embarks on a mission to embrace the intricate cultural subtleties of diverse Asian countries. Armed with nearly two decades of creative experience and distinctive, deep cultural understanding, Thailand-based Akers will further extend Mash’s exceptional creative services across the region.
Rounding out the new-look Mash leadership team, Williams takes on the role of ANZ creative partnerships director. Having worked with Mash since 2018 as part of the founding team, Williams’s new role will focus on project delivery and partnerships across Australia and New Zealand.
Williams said: “Over the past five years I’ve personally experienced and witnessed Mash empowering creatives to do their best work. As we evolve and scale, I am excited to step into this new role to continue connecting forward-thinking organisations with these brilliant creatives, and make relevant and impactful work together.”
Mash is currently experiencing 90 per cent growth year-on-year and works with global brands such as Netflix, Indeed and Accor. It is currently active across 31 countries including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the US.
