Valerie Madon has left Havas Group as chief creative officer for South East Asia and chairwoman of Havas Group Singapore.

A statement from the network said: “Havas Group has confirmed that Valerie Madon, the chief creative officer Southeast Asia and chairwoman Havas Group Singapore is moving on from the organisation to pursue other opportunities.

“We thank Valerie for her contribution and wish her the best with her next chapter.”

Mumbrella had been given to understand that Madon’s departure was unrelated to the recent controversy surrounding a campaign for E-Pay – created by Havas – and actually took place before the furore around the creative work.

Madon apparently had no direct oversight on the campaign and had resigned last week, prior to the campaign being called out for using allegedly racist imagery, it was said.

This was, however, denied by sources at Havas who said that Madon had resigned this week and that as the chief creative officer she did indeed have oversight over the campaign – even if she was not directly involved with its creation.