Executive appointments at Viacom Asia Pacific

Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has announced executive appointments within the company’s management team in Asia Pacific, which will be effective 1 October 2016.

Paras Sharma, previously senior vice president of MTV, Comedy Central & Paramount Channel brands, and digital media for Asia, will take on the position of senior vice president & general manager for Southeast Asia (SEA), and will continue to report directly to Mark Whitehead, executive vice president and managing director, VIMN Asia Pacific.

Simon Bates (pictured L), vice president of MTV, Comedy Central & Spike brands for Australia and New Zealand, is appointed vice president, head of MTV Asia Pacific, and Comedy Central and Spike for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Bates will dual report to Whitehead for his MTV regional role and to Ben Richardson, senior vice president and general manager in ANZ for his local brand leadership over MTV, Comedy Central and Spike.

Kirsty Bloore (pictured R), research director for ANZ, is promoted to senior director, research for Asia Pacific. Bloore will report to Amit Arora, vice president of strategy and business development, Asia Pacific and to Richardson for ANZ research support.

Bates will lead the brand teams across Asia Pacific to grow the MTV brand and drive synergies across the different lines of businesses and platforms to support revenue growth across Asia Pacific. He will also maintain brand leadership for Comedy Central and Spike in ANZ.

With more than two decades of media and research experience, Bloore will provide the businesses with regional consumer and commercial insights, brands’ performance reporting and forecasting. Bloore has been instrumental in building recognition of the ANZ business as a leader in consumer insights by sharing key studies with the market.