Google promotes Oates and Boekestein as it unifies APAC partner strategy

Google has appointed Caroline Oates and Aaron Boekestein to lead its Australian and Asia-Pacific agency and partner business.

Oates steps into the role of Director of the Agency and Partners Team (APT) at Google AuNZ. She will lead Google’s commercial strategy and joint initiatives across media agencies, technology and creative partners in Australia and New Zealand, and starts later this month.

Oates has been at Google for 14 years. For the past nine she has led YouTube advertising and programmatic sales in AuNZ as Head of YouTube business. She sits on the Board of Directors for IAB Australia and is a founding member of the Video Futures Collective.

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Boekestein has been appointed Managing Director, Agency & 3rd Party Ecosystems (A&3PE), APAC, leading Google’s newly unified regional organisation. Based in Singapore, he oversees the agency and partner network across Asia-Pacific. He moved into the role in early October.

Boekestein previously led Google’s AuNZ Ads Partnerships team. He has more than 20 years of experience across agency leadership, marketing and technology, including a decade in APAC leadership roles in Australia and Singapore. In AuNZ, he developed growth and commercial frameworks, expanded the Google Honours program into Accelerate with Google Expert, and grew Creator Marketing Partner coverage.

Google's unifies APAC partner strategy

Under the unified APAC structure, AuNZ will receive more regional support, including increased investment in partner enablement, specialised pre-sales engineering and automated capability pathways.

Mel Silva, Managing Director and VP, Google Australia & New Zealand, said: “We are immensely proud to see our local leaders step up into new roles across AuNZ and APAC, and drive our continued commitment to our partners across the region.”