SINGAPORE — The regional MD of Interpublic Group consumer PR agency DeVries Global has abruptly left after two years in the job, reports Mumbrella Asia.

Michelle Tham set up Devries’s Asia operation based out of Singapore in 2012, after 11 years working for IPG sister PR agency Weber Shandwick, latterly as senior VP. She is close to Procter & Gamble, having moved to DeVries along with Weber Shandwick’s regional P&G team to run the account.

But Tham has been replaced by an executive from overseas. Former DeVries employee DeLisa Harmon has moved from the US to Singapore to fill the role, the agency confirmed this morning.

Harmon moves from Sprout Content where she was chief marketing officer. Over a long career in PR, she has worked for Marina Maher Communications and Ruder Finn, and spent six years at DeVries between 1999 and 2005.

IPG expanded DeVries out of New York in 2012, with Tham overseeing offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. The agency has satellite offices in India, Japan and Taiwan.
Before joining Weber in 2001, Tham was a civil servant, working as a public education officer for the Ministry of the Environment & Water Resources.