Meet Justin, General Manager Asia Pacific

Hi Justin, can you say a few words about you?

I’m originally from Malaysia but spent much of my life in the UK where I went to school, university and subsequently started my ad tech career. After 12 years of experiencing the great British weather, I decided it was time for a change and made the move to sunny Singapore. I got offered a 1-year contract to work in Singapore but that got extended and I ended up loving it so much that I decided to stay. The end of 2020 will mark my 10-year anniversary here.

Can you tell us about your position at Sublime?

I have been with Sublime for two years now and my role as APAC General Manager is to scale up and grow the business across the region. My primary focus is to drive Sublime’s revenue growth with our agency partners and advertisers. Additionally, I also manage the day to day operations of the business, and this comes with responsibilities like managing the team, working with publisher/ops teams and ensuring we have a healthy P&L.

A passion outside of work?

Outside of work, I spend much of my free time playing sports and experimenting with food. I like trying new recipes, cooking with different ingredients and I always enjoy going out for a nice meal. There was a point in the early part of my career where I nearly left the ad tech industry altogether to pursue a culinary career. I even applied to Le Cordon Bleu and was accepted into one of their programs but didn’t end up going for various reasons. Given all the eating and drinking I do I feel it’s quite necessary to stay active, so I spend much of my free time playing sports too. Some of my favorite sports are football and golf but I also enjoy getting on my road bike, swimming, and I often travel around Asia to scuba or free drive.

What do you like best about your job?

I would have to say that long client lunches tops the list! On a more serious note, the broad nature of my role means that I get the opportunity to collaborate with all functions of the business so it’s a constant learning curve and always interesting. The APAC office also covers many different markets so there is a fair bit of travel involved (Covid permitting of course) which is exciting as I get to meet people from all over the world and experience new cultures and ways of doing business.

How would you describe your work day to a child?

I wake up every morning, go to the office and ask people to put ads on the internet.

Your motto in life?

Such is life/C'est la vie.