Vivian Yen appointed as iKala's Chief Operating Officer
Boice Lin, former General Manager of Taiwan Merkle, joins iKala as Head of Global Business Development & Commerce General Manager
Taiwan, 6th October 2022—iKala, Asia's leading Human-Centered AI company headquartered in Taiwan, announced today that it has appointed its Chief Business Officer, Vivian Yen, as Chief Operating Officer and that Boice Lin, former General Manager of Merkle Taiwan, has joined iKala as Head of Global Business Development & Commerce General Manager to support the steady growth of its multinational teams and accelerate the expansion of its footprints in Asian markets such as Taiwan and Japan.
With more than 25 years of experience in advertising media and MarTech, Vivian Yen has been instrumental in iKala's business expansion since joining the company in 2021. She has contributed to the team's ability to provide AI-driven digital transformation and data-driven marketing solutions and has led the team to successfully acquire several new corporate clients. In her new role, Yen will be responsible for the strategic planning for iKala's teams and business operations. With her rich management experience and ability to identify corporate customers' needs precisely, she will drive the company's business expansion by optimizing its operational infrastructure and consolidating its human resources and service expertise.
"I am grateful for this opportunity to take on more responsibility as the company's COO and grow with the iKala teams," said iKala's Chief Operating Officer, Vivian Yen. "Powered by leading-edge technology, iKala believes that the foundation of driving team growth and creating value is a human-centric approach. We help customers to solve business pain points along their digital transformation journey with AI-driven, customer-centered total solutions covering from cloud computing to new retail models. I look forward to working more closely with our teams in the coming years. With the pandemic and the global economy yet to stabilize, iKala will keep moving forward rapidly while focusing on customer needs when optimizing and consolidating our teams' existing technology, data and talent pool of professionals. We'll collaborate with our customers to navigate new business opportunities and enhance competitiveness in this dramatically changing environment."
Prior to joining iKala, she worked as the General Manager of SalesFrontier, General Manager of AnyMind Taiwan and General Manager of MediaCom—an agency of GroupM. She was devoted to the transformation of traditional advertising media and led her teams to pursue better business growth. As a serial entrepreneur, she has built experiences in establishing companies from scratch, finding investors and employing digital technologies.
iKala also announced that Boice Lin, former General Manager of Merkle Taiwan, has joined iKala as Head of Global Business Development & Commerce General Manager. Lin has over 15 years of professional experience with AdTech, MarTech and enterprise solutions and is committed to driving digital transformation in Taiwan and Northeast and Southeast Asia. He will be leading iKala's multinational teams to achieve market expansion goals and accelerate the growth of iKala Commerce's footprints and teams in Taiwan and Japan.
"AI has disrupted consumer behavior and business models, and I am convinced that it is most valuable as an assistive technology tool that helps people solve problems and increase well-being. This is exactly aligned with iKala's mission—to empower with AI," commented Boice Lin, iKala's Head of Global Business Development & Commerce General Manager. "I am excited to join iKala and work with the exceptional multinational teams to expand our business in Asia. I look forward to leveraging my experience in structuring teams and building up overseas presence, as well as my insights on the marketing technology sector, to speed up iKala Commerce's pace in supporting businesses in Taiwan and Japan to embrace the age of Direct-to-Consumer, working with them to own every touch point—from influencer marketing to social commerce—in their journey with customers and to use customer data platforms for building long-term customer loyalty."
Before joining iKala, Lin was General Manager at Merkle Taiwan, a Dentsu brand for data-driven customer experience, where he and his teams helped customers to deepen and reinvent their relationships with consumers. Prior to that, he worked as Head of Global Sales and Business Development at Appier, leading a multi-national team across 13 countries that exceeded performance targets continuously; as Deputy General Manager of Sales and Marketing Department at TutorABC; and as Senior Client Representative at IBM Taiwan.
Sega Cheng, Co-founder & CEO of iKala, said, "The whole iKala's executive leadership team and I are honored by today's announcement as it demonstrates iKala's commitment to responding to market needs and accelerating AI-empowered digital transformation for customers. What's more, it also shows the team's determination to tap into the Japanese market. Despite the global economic uncertainties, iKala has been growing rapidly this year, and we have to—especially at a critical time like this—keep improving our AI-centered service and R&D offerings to support our corporate customers in finding breakthroughs and creating more value. I look forward to the next milestone of the company as it thrives on its solid foundation and the new momentum added to the leadership team."