Digital marketing consultancy ada adds Simon Samuel to data team

Axiata’s digital marketing arm ada has appointed one-time Deloitte associate director Simon Samuel as its new Head of Data Analytics, to be based out of Malaysia

Following the addition of ex-EY Asia Pacific data and analytics advisory director Vittorio Furlan in December last year, digital marketing consultancy ada has recruited another Big Four alumnus to its leadership team in Malaysia: Simon Samuel, who has been appointed ada’s new Head of Data Analytics. Samuel will be based out of Kuala Lumpur and oversee a team of ~50 data scientists and data and software engineers.

“ada is thrilled to have Simon on board and lead the team in Malaysia and regionally with his wealth of experience,” said ada CEO Srivinas Gattamneni. “I am certain that great things are in store for our clients as we help them navigate the complex world of data science and analytics – we are here to enrich their digital marketing strategies with precise targeting to yield better results and business outcomes.”

Samuel joins the growing agency after an eighteen-month freelance consulting period spent in Asia – where he has advised “some of the largest organisations within the ASEAN region”. Prior to relocating, he served for a year as Head of Data and Analytics at energy company Centrica in the UK, before which he spent a three-plus as an associated director with Deloitte in London – catering in particular to large financial sector clients both locally and abroad.

Having completed studies in banking and international finance at the University of London’s Cass Business School in 1990, Samuel earlier in his career served for more than two decades between Zurich Financial Services and Lloyds – latterly in role of customer value modelling – during which time he developed expertise in customer strategy and analytics and in digital transformations among other specialties.

Now, Samuel will work alongside fellow data expert and former Big Four director Furlan (who joined the firm as Head of Analytics but now serves as Head of Business Insights, a consulting unit serving clients beyond the traditional agency work) to drive data-driven business growth in Malaysia and across ada’s current regional markets – covering eight locations throughout South and Southeast Asia.   

“Data analytics is the key to the future of advertising. In the next three to five years, we expect 90 percent of all marketing decisions to be data-driven,” Gattamneni previously stated. “With access to rich telco data and a team of dedicated specialists that champion transparency, ada offers brands and businesses the opportunity to communicate with consumers with unprecedented precision to achieve business results.”