Arpan Sur, head of marketing for Malaysia and Singapore at Mondelēz International for nearly two years, has taken a new role as senior director of marketing at Mondelēz’s Sub-Saharan Africa market, according to his LinkedIn profile. Sur has been with the company for a little over seven years, and he will be based in Johannesburg, Gauteng, in South Africa for his new position.
In his last role, Sur was leading a 12-man team that was responsible for all the categories in both countries in April 2021. Sur oversaw the end to end marketing responsibility across the full portfolio of brands. Based in Kuala Lumpur, he reported to Nikhil Rao who was promoted to director of marketing for Southeast Asia earlier in 2021. Sur’s replacement has not been named.
Sur has over 18 years of industry experience. He was previously associate director, biscuits lead, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for a little over a year, according to his LinkedIn profile. In this role, a Mondelēz’s spokesperson told that he successfully drove share gains, especially for Oreo, across all Southeast Asia markets.
The spokesperson added that Sur also led the biscuits team in Malaysia and Singapore to “exceptional growth and share gain in 2020”. Additionally, Sur helmed roles including associate director, equity and innovation, biscuits, Southeast Asia and senior manager, chocolate innovations, Asia-Pacific. Before moving to Kuala Lumpur, Sur was based in Mumbai where he worked for Cadbury for nearly five years. During his time there, he held roles including category manager, Cadbury Dairy Milk, branch sales manager and category manager, candy and gums.
On a separate note, on the advertising front, Mondelēz retained Wavemaker for its APAC media duties following a global pitch in August. Since 2019, Wavemaker has been a strategic partner to Mondelēz and will continue working with the brand across Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan. Additionally, Mondelēz also extended duties to Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
A Wavemaker spokesperson said previously: “A true testament to regional best practices applications and adaptations, the extensive pitch process over the last six months involved a great deal of work. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the contributors from across our formidable global network that did an outstanding job”.
