Wavemaker Appoints Jose Campon as China CEO

Wavemaker today announced the appointment of Jose Campon as CEO for China. Jose comes from Dentsu where he was APAC client president. He joins Wavemaker as CEO, taking on the role from Gordon Domlija, Wavemaker APAC CEO. With Jose in place, Gordon will focus on his regional responsibilities, providing a network of support to scale and reapply best-in-class ideas and work to enhance local accountability and global consistency in Wavemaker’s fastest growing region.

Jose joins as leader of one of Wavemaker’s major local powerhouses. Wavemaker in China has been a driver of the global network’s strong growth in APAC, with US $1.1 billion worth of new business wins and retentions, including Huawei, Daimler, Xiaohongshu, Pernod Ricard, Perfetti Van Melle, Meituan and Prada in China. As Jose joins Gordon Domlija’s regional leadership team, the two will work closely together to secure that local success is scaled and replicated for growth and consistency across the Wavemaker network.

Toby Jenner, Wavemaker’s global CEO, commented: “Thanks to the tireless efforts of Gordon and his team, China has become a place of strong growth for Wavemaker. Our recent wins and retentions prove the early success of our message of Positive Provocation, powered by our spirit of restless enquiry in pursuit of better outcomes. The bar is set high, but with his impressive industry experience and digital smarts, I believe that Jose is the absolutely right leader to take Wavemaker in China to the next level.”   

Gordon Domlija, Wavemaker APAC CEO, said: “Our China agency comprises five offices and more than 700 smart, fearless Wavemakers who push boundaries to create growth for our clients every day. I am incredibly proud of what we have built in China and excited for the next stage of growth under Jose’s leadership. As Jose joins, I will focus more on developing the wider region, but remain a committed member of team China and will work closely with Patrick and Jose to ensure we continue to build on our great success.”

“China is a huge and challenging market. It’s fast growing and digitally progressive and full of fantastic creativity and opportunity." added Patrick Xu, CEO of GroupM Greater China and WPP Greater China. "As we’re hopefully now emerging from the impact of the pandemic, I am looking forward to partnering with Jose to create growth for our group in Greater China.”

Jose continued: “Joining Wavemaker under the leadership of Toby globally and Gordon regionally, and with Patrick’s support, is a great opportunity. Wavemaker is one of the world’s biggest media agencies, full of smart, talented people, and I’m looking forward to being part of it.”

With over 20 years of media and marketing experience, Jose has led top-tiered media accounts including Microsoft, L’Oréal, Nestlé and BMW. He has a proven track record of delivering excellence in client leadership for complex, global organisations as well as digital performance expertise acquired both in the West and China. Prior to his role as Dentsu APAC client president, he was iProspect APAC MD based in Singapore, a position he took up in 2017, and also spent six years in iProspect in China where he held roles such as VP of strategy and international clients and General Manager.

Fluent in Mandarin, Jose will be based in Shanghai and with his first day at Wavemaker this month. He will report to APAC CEO Gordon Domlija.