Originally published by Campaign Asia.
Shanghai | 13 July 2020 – Award-winning agency OMD has appointed Connie Chan as CEO for its operations in China. With 25 years of local, regional, and global experience under her belt, Chan is tasked with leading OMD’s three China offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, with oversight on major blue-chip clients such as Apple, Yili, Daimler AG, Estée Lauder and Beiersdorf.
This appointment also comes at the back of a spate of new business wins this year including Lindt & Sprüngli AG and Daimler AG. In her new role, Chan will work closely with Claudine Kwek, CEO, Omnicom Media Group China, as well as Stephen Li, APAC CEO, OMD, on chartering the continued growth of OMD in China.
Chan is certainly no stranger to the industry, having spent close to 15 years in leadership roles developing and driving agile and effective solutions for clients across WPP companies. Prior to joining OMD China, Chan served as Executive Director at WPP’s Government & Public Sector Practice, a role that saw her collaborate with government communicators and public sector clients in strategy, innovation, and capability building while being based in Singapore. Before that, Chan was MEC’s (now merged as Wavemaker) first Chief Client Officer for APAC where she was responsible for overseeing the agency’s top 10 APAC clients that included Chanel, Tiffany & Co, Mercedes-Benz, Singapore Airlines and Citibank.
“We were deliberately measured in our search because we wanted to find a leader who has the experience, tenacity and calibre to successfully steer the OMD business in China,” said Kwek. “We are excited to have found the right candidate in Connie. With her extensive experience, coupled with her sharp business acumen, we have the utmost confidence in her ability to build on the success and momentum of the agency,” she added.
“OMD is an agency that believes in helping clients make better decisions faster through an empathetic understanding of consumer behaviour,” said Li. “This is exactly why we feel that Connie’s innate sense of people and culture, married with years of rigorous communications experience is ideal for our needs in China,” he added.