Havas Media Group has appointed Michael Lelievre as chief financial officer for Asia Pacific.

In his new role, Lelievre will be responsible for finance, legal, HR and IT. He will also be responsible for supporting the general management in developing the business in the APAC market.

He joins the agency with 19 years of experience in the finance space, 18 of which have been spent with Bollore Group working across South Africa, France and the UK. He most recently held the position of chief financial officer at SAGA, one of the companies under Bollore Logistics, where he spent four years based out of Paris.

Mohan said: “Michael is a very senior and highly experienced finance professional with a breadth of experience having worked both in global headquarters and local markets in his previous roles. He will be instrumental in steering the group towards achieving our financial goals and we are delighted to have him with us.”

Lelievre said: “Logistics and media are quite similar in a way. They are both evolving industries with significant financial commitments and minimum assets and pressurised margins, making the financial division key in the organisation. I am delighted to be a part of this new industry which is undergoing a massive transformation.”

He will be reporting in jointly to Vishnu Mohan, chief executive of Havas Media Group APAC and Antonio Caceres Martinez, global chief financial officer of Havas Media Group, with the dotted line to global heads of IT, HR and Legal.