# Laurent Thevenet **APAC Creative Tech Leader** — Singapore, Singapore > As a leader at the intersection of creativity, technology, and design, I bring over 25 years of experience, turning innovative ideas into reality. Originally from France and based in Asia since 2008, I pride myself on staying one step ahead in an ever-evolving landscape. With a deep technical background and a design mindset, I bridge the gap between strategic vision and hands-on execution, ensuring concepts come to life. I have extensive expertise in generative AI applied to creativity (since 2019), new media art, creative coding, crypto stacks & culture, design/UX engineering, and software development for mobile, web, and physical spaces. I’m passionate about anticipating technological and design shifts, especially their impact on society, businesses, and consumers. I’ve built future vision strategies for organizations and clients alike, and have been invited to speak at conferences across the APAC region and beyond, sharing my vision of the future and expertise in GenAI, creative technology, and innovation. While I remain close to the technology and craft by passion, I have also managed teams of up to 30 people across various markets. My teams have delivered large-scale creative experiences and products across South-East Asia, China, the Middle East, and Australia for clients such as ComfortDelGro (Zig), Honda, Cathay Pacific, AXA, Heineken, Singapore Tourism Board, McDonald’s, Tiger Beer, UOB, Netflix, Nike, Uber, Google, YouTube, IMDA, Aramex, and Telstra. Historically, my teams have spanned backend, frontend, UX engineering, design, and creative technology. I hire and mentor talent based on a blend of IQ and EQ: IQ for their technical skills or ability to learn quickly, and EQ for their understanding of creativity, craftsmanship, and team dynamics. I believe in fostering strong social dynamics, whether teams are geographically distributed or co-located. Career Archetype: **All-Terrain Trailblazer** (HB-MG) — One of the first All-Terrain Trailblazers on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/laurent-thevenet ## Experience ### Head of Creative Tech APAC, Publicis Groupe APAC (2021-10 – present) Singapore · -Co-driving the AI agenda in APAC @ Publicis Groupe in collaboration with creative, media & data teams + local leads and the global Publicis AI team -Leading a constantly-evolving internal collective of 30+ hybrid talents across APACMEA -Working with clients such as Singapore Tourism Board, Heineken, Tiger Beer, Samsung, McDonalds, Suncorp, PMJ, Honda, SK-II, AXA, Cathay Pacific, HSBC, ENBD, RAM, Nestlé... -Driving work through prototyping, project supervision or creative tech strategies. -Connecting the dots across the Publicis Groupe organization (more than 40K staff in APAC) to facilitate our answers to clients. ### Executive Technology Director, R/GA (2017-03 – 2021-10) Singapore · -Worked across South-East Asia, China, Middle-East and Australia. -Clients such as ComfortDelGro (Zig), UOB, Netflix, Nike, Uber, Google, YouTube, Siemens, IMDA, SP Group, McCormick, Aramex, Toyota and Telstra. -Started and built R/GA Indonesia for its first 18 months. -Developed R/GA Prototype Studio APAC ### Technology Director, R/GA (2015-04 – 2017-03) Singapore ### Technical Director, BBDO Singapore (2012-12 – 2015-04) Singapore · Driving the innovation agenda and digitalization of BBDO Singapore. leadership, creative coding, small and big builds. Working on a variety of accounts including VISA, Exxon, Fonterra, Guinness, Mercedes, P&G across Asia, Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe ### Creative Technologist / Partner, BENCH by RightBrain (2008-04 – 2012-12) Singapore · Web Television (through I.Jam MDA ventures program) Web agency for clients like Pascal Morabito, Mediacorp, Singapore MCYS (Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports). ### Director / Partner, 7Theories (2006-04 – 2009-01) Aix-en-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France · Development of fonZz.com, a shopping engine with more than 500,000 products listed. Website is down since June 2009. Sold my shares in January 2009 (company takeover). Built with J2EE, SQL, PL/pgSQL, PostgreSQL, Hibernate, XML, Ruby on Rails, FreeBSD, Ubuntu ### IT Lecturer / Engineer, ECML (now ESIMED) (2002-07 – 2006-01) Marseille Area, France · Java (J2EE, J2SE) and Database (SQL/PLSQL) lecturer (about 1,000 hours of courses - 30 to 60 students per class). Development of a fully integrated students management software (desktop and web, 500+ students to manage along the years). Built with Java (Swing, J2EE, RMI, XML-RPC), PHP and PostgreSQL. Use of concurrency tools live CVS, Subversion and Arch. ### Lead developer / Co-founder, NextObjects (2001-07 – 2003-07) Marseille Area, France · Open-source Merise modeling software written in Java (under GPL license). International team. Transformation of Merise models into XML feeds to simplify the use of different RDBMS using the Apache Torque API. Development of the whole user interface (Swing). In charge of most of the 2D engine & responsible for the project structure. ### Trainee / Co-op, PTC (2000-05 – 2002-06) Aix-En-Provence Area, France · Technical support (Southern Europe) for big PTC accounts (EADS, Ferrari, Universities). Development and worldwide deployment (US, Europe and Asia) of a Java based application internally certifying PTC technical support engineers. In charge of a set of Solaris, HP-UX, Irix, Digital Unix and Windows NT workstations. ## Education ### Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science, Project Management, Database, Sysadmin, ECML (2000-01 – 2002-01) ### Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Relational databases, Object-oriented programming, Unix/Linux/Windows systems administration, IIRIAM (2000-01 – 2002-01) ### Diploma in Development, Database, Mathematics, English, Management, IUT Informatique Aix en Provence (1997-01 – 2000-01) ## Projects ### Various Generative AI Experiments (since 2019) Exploration of emerging algorithms and tools in the Generative AI space, a journey that started in 2019. ### TRIF Music & GIFs... ### Speaker at DMASL Digital Summit Sri Lanka ”The standard is moving (up)” - Talk about AI triggering a creative renaissance but also the rise of slop on the other end. Audience +/- 750 ### Speaker at AI Summit Seoul 2026 The rise of distributed building +/- 250 attendees ### Speaker at Ad:Tech New Delhi Talk about Multi-Speed Innovation across Enterprise and Frontier tech. +/- 250 attendees ### Speaker at Content Marketing Summit Seoul 2025 Talk about AI, agents and future creativity +/- 1000 attendees ### AI Panel with PRCA APAC NextGen: Beyond the Bot - Thriving in the AI Era Audience +/- 50 ### NLB - Augmented Reading An AR application for Snap Spectacles that augments the reading of books with on-the-fly generated images, SFX and music. ### Suncorp Haven Suncorp Haven allows your home to tell you about its weather risks and what you can do to address its resilience needs. Launch Haven. Hundreds of millions of data-points synthesized for each single residential address in Australia. Rendered on top of Google 3D tiles with additional effects. Built across APAC and Europe through Publicis Groupe agencies and additional external partners and freelancers. ### Jury IP & Product Design, One Show ### AI Panel at SMU "Creativity in the AI Age" Audience +/- 30 ### Speaker at ACA Mauritius FLAME Webinar Audience +/- 200 Topic: Creative Tech / Innovation Main webinar ### Speaker at AI Summit Seoul 2024 "Creativity, Evolved": an exploration of the future of creativity in this generative world. ### Speaker for SMU MBA class 60 MBA students (business narrative class). Generative AI and the future Strategic approach to the next phase and the current approach towards generative AI. Introducing the concept of Generative Future ### Cathay - Rerighting History Cathay sponsors the transport of Hong Kong athletes to and from the cities Olympics are happening in. To get people interested in the 2024 Paralympics, a campaign was design to show historical championship moments, only to reveal these were recreated with AI, as actual coverage has been lost to history, giving a call-to-action that it was not to late to begin supporting our Paralympians now. Use of Runway Gen3 and other AI re-generation techniques. ### Jury and Best of Google AI category lead, YouTube SEA Awards, July-August 2024 ### Panel at Insead MBA Financial Club Alongside people from Sapient and Meta to discuss the impact of GenAI in the industry. ### Speaker at Campaign360 AI for creativity and effectiveness Audience +/- 100 ### Panel at Adfest 2024 AI: Friend or Foe. A conversation among creative leaders on the future of creativity with GenAI at the core. Audience: A few hundreds people. ### Speaker at Publicis Groupe GovDay GenAI & Marketing - Audience +/- 500 ## Skills Team Management, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Technology Solutions, APAC, Creative Technology, Tech Leadership, Future Vision, Web3, Crypto, Blockchain, Large Language Models (LLM), Product Design, Industrial Design, Oral Communication, Technical Specs, Product Management, Skill Development, Analytical Skills, Product Development, Teamwork ## Credentials - **1 Gold - Suncorp Haven** — APAC Effies (issued 2026-09) - **2 Gold - Suncorp Haven** — AWARD (issued 2026-08) - **1 Grand Prix 2 Silver 1 Bronze - Suncorp Haven** — Cannes Lions (issued 2026-06) - **2 Gold 1 Bronze 1 Merit - Suncorp Haven** — The One Show Awards (issued 2026-05) - **1 Grand Prix 1 Gold 1 Silver 1 Bronze 3 Shortlists - Suncorp Haven** — Spikes (issued 2026-03) - **5 Gold 1 Silver 1 Shortlist - Suncorp Haven** — Adfest (issued 2026-03) - **Alan Page Award for writing - Cathay Rerighting History** — Cresta Awards (issued 2026-01) - **AI Team of the year** — Campaign Agency Of The Year (issued 2025-12) - **Best AI & Tech Campaign - Suncorp Haven** — B&T (issued 2025-11) - **2 Gold 3 Silver 1 Bronze 1 Finalist - Suncorp Haven** — LIA (issued 2025-09) - **2 Bronze - Cathay Pacific - Rerighting History** — Madstars (issued 2025-08) - **1 Shortlist - Cathay Pacific "Re-righting History"** — Cannes Lions (issued 2025-06) - **1 Silver - Suncorp Resilience** — Cannes Lions (issued 2025-06) - **1 Bronze 2 Merits - Cathay Pacific Rerighting History** — One Show (issued 2025-05) - **2 Bronze - Cathay Pacific "Every Move Counts"** — Adfest (issued 2025-03) - **6 Shortlists - Cathay Pacific "Every Move Counts"** — Spikes (issued 2025-03) - **1 Gold / 6 Silver / 3 Bronze - NLB Playbrary** — GONG Awards Singapore (issued 2025-01) - **2 Silver / 2 Bronze - NLB Playbrary** — One Club For Creativity - Asia (issued 2024-12) - **2 Silver / 1 Bronze / 1 Shortlist - Clio Sports** — Clio (issued 2024-11) - **1 Silver / 1 Bronze - NLB Playbrary** — LIA (issued 2024-09) - **[인터뷰] AI로 ‘만드는 일’이 쉬워질수록, 왜 판단과 책임은 더 중요해질까? - MIT 테크놀로지 리뷰** - **AI touches nearly every brand campaign. Why are brands not disclosing the fact?** - **Inside Creative Tech at Publicis** - **It’s so easy to be lazy with AI, that it’s dangerous** - **Too much governance slows you down, too much freedom creates chaos** - **AI is not reducing costs, it’s redistributing them** - **Agencies vs. AI: Who Wins the Battle for Creativity?** - **India is central to Publicis’ AI execution in APAC, says APAC creative tech head Laurent Thevenet** - **Delegating cognition, one prompt at a time** - **Delegating cognition, one prompt at a time** - **‘Automated Imagination’ – Laurent Thevenet to Speak at the Content Marketing Summit 2025 in Seoul** - **Publicis Groupe’s Laurent Thevenet to speak at Content Marketing Summit 2025 in Seoul** - **Laurent Thevenet to Represent Publicis Groupe APAC at Content Marketing Summit 2025** - **AI is the tool, not the creative: Agency experts reveal how they use GenAI tools to shape modern campaigns** - **101 on synthetic data and why it could be big in advertising** - **AXA's mission to help you live out your bucket list dreams** - **AXA and Publicis Groupe launch Bucket List AI to inspire a life fully lived** - **AXA and Publicis Groupe collaborate to launch life-changing Bucket List Ai across parts of Asia** - **AXA inspires consumers to protect their dreams with Bucket List Ai** - **AXA’s latest campaign uses AI to bring dreams to life while promoting health and financial security** --- Source: https://saywise.com/member2283 (last modified 2026-10-06T03:54:24.983Z)