Tan Kien Eng

Speaker’s profile

CEO

Publicis Groupe Malaysia, and Leo Burnett Group Malaysia

Tan Kien Eng, with more than three decades of experience, believes that to grow a brand it starts with the growth of its people. In 2004, as President and Executive Creative Director of Arc Worldwide Malaysia, he grew ARC WW to be the No.1 direct marketing agency in Malaysia for three consecutive years – 2007, 2008 and 2009.

During his tenure as CEO of Leo Burnett Group Malaysia, the agency was ranked No.1 by ADOI magazine in 2008 followed by recognition from the 4As as the agency of the year. The highlight, however, was when Leo Burnett Malaysia was voted the No.1 preferred agency by top marketers in Malaysia in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 under his leadership, after sweeping the most number of golds at the A+M Agency of the Year awards.

Kien claimed Campaign Asia Pacific’s regional gold for Southeast Asia Agency Head of the Year 2012; clinched the title for Malaysia Digital Agency of the Year for three consecutive years; Malaysia Creative Agency of the Year, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; as well as Southeast Asia PR Agency of the Year, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

He has won over 300 creative awards, and is perhaps the only CEO with four Cannes gold awards under his belt. His category experience spans from automotive to telecommunications. In addition, he has been elected to be part of the judging panels for multiple regional and international awards such as Cannes, D&AD London, Echo New York, AWARDS Australia, and Adfest, just to name a few.

Aside from growing the creative reputation of Leo Burnett Group in Malaysia, Kien, as CEO of the company, has led Leo Burnett Malaysia to exponential growth and business transformation to be the largest creative agency in Malaysia. From 2009 to 2011, as CEO, he doubled the size of Leo Burnett Singapore.

In March 2016, Publicis Groupe, the global communications enterprise, united all group agency brands’ capabilities and expertise under Publicis Groupe and appointed him as the Group CEO of Publicis Groupe Malaysia. With this, he oversees brands under the Publicis Groupe Malaysia umbrella, including Leo Burnett, Arc Worldwide, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid, Alpha 245, Publicis Emil, Prodigious, Digitas, Starcom, Performics, Spark Foundry, Zenith and MSL.
Among his favorite pastimes are studying lifestyle-related design, history, observing people and enjoying nature.