Wunderman has appointed Caspar Schlickum as Asia Pacific chief executive to succeed Martin Conneen, who is leaving to “pursue new opportunities”.

Schlickum has been hired from global digital media platform Xaxis, which is also part of the WPP group.

At Xaxis he oversaw the EMEA region and joined in 2010 as part of the firm’s founding team that led the strategic development of the business, which included expanding it to 25 markets and building a 500-strong team consisting of developers and data scientists.

Schlickum will begin his Wunderman role in September and be responsible for 1,000 people across 28 offices and 14 countries.

He will be responsible for developing and expanding the agency’s offering with a particular emphasis on digital and data-driven marketing.

Schlickum’s predecessor Conneen has worked at Wunderman for a decade and served as president of Asia-Pacific for two years.

Wunderman global chief executive Mark Read said: “Asia is a high priority market for us and Caspar’s unique experience in digital marketing, data and analytics, as well as his understanding of technology-driven business, will be hugely beneficial as we continue to grow our business throughout the region.”

Schlickum has been at WPP since 2005 after initially joining Added Value, before moving on to MindShare.

Prior to WPP he was vice president of investment banking for Deutsche Bank in Sydney, where he worked across the APAC region.

Schlickum said: “Mark has put an incredible team of leaders together who are delivering world-class ideas and work to clients around the world.

“I believe Wunderman’s core offering today is stronger than ever – there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for the business in the APAC region.”