A leader creates runways for his team to succeed, and Bala Pomaleh, CEO of IPG Mediabrands Malaysia certainly does that. Following his win as SEA Agency Head of the Year 2021 at the Campaign Agency of the Year Awards, he was shortlisted globally. In the time since, Bala has continued to shape agency priorities to continue the transformation evolution, setting sights on business sustainability through the crisis to keep pushing the needle. Most importantly, people priorities have remained at the very heart of all actions, as greater commitments on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) efforts shaped the values and culture across the network. With these priorities forming the direction, Bala has led the team to Dominate the RECMA Qualitative rankings at #1 and brought the network tops in Activity Volume for the first time in history. Always the challenger, the network under Bala’s charge is now at the pinnacle!