Sungkyoon Kim takes charge as president and chief executive of Cheil SWA

GURGAON: Cheil South West Asia has named Sungkyoon Kim as president and chief executive of the Cheil SWA group, handing the reins to a data-and-digital heavyweight as advertising hurtles into its AI age.

Based at the agency’s Gurgaon headquarters, Kim will lead a 1,000-strong talent pool across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata, spanning creative, data, technology, retail, media and experiential.

Kim brings more than 30 years’ experience in marketing strategy, data and analytics, and consumer psychology. He joins after serving as head of digital platform business, overseeing Samsung.com, and leading the DnA (data and analytics) center at Cheil, where he drove CRM and data initiatives.

His track record leans heavily on data-led transformation. He has led programmes to strengthen CRM, media, marketing and AI capabilities, including the design and deployment of a real-time digital media optimisation platform that integrated cross-channel spend and performance data to sharpen investment efficiency and ROI. He also pushed the development and rollout of LLM-powered AI agents for real-time analysis and automated insight generation.

An Adobe Experience Platform expert, Kim has spearheaded marketing automation projects that unified customer data and enabled real-time, personalised cross-channel campaigns. He also played a key role in setting up Cheil’s global data center in India, boosting offshore R&D and global operational efficiency.

“The advertising landscape is at a pivotal shift,” Kim said. “As AI continues to redefine marketing, our future success sits at the intersection of human psychology and data-driven technology. My goal is to drive an AI-led transformation that goes beyond the surface, embedding innovation into the very fabric of our business functions. Alongside our incredible talent, I look forward to delivering dynamic, high-impact marketing solutions our clients expect in this new era.”

With data as fuel and AI as engine, Cheil SWA is betting its next chapter will be written in algorithms as much as ideas. Kim is now firmly in the driver’s seat.
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