Former McCann China CEO resurfaces to oversee Edelman

Edelman has named Jesse Lin the president and chief executive officer of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, effective January 15. He will also join the PR firm’s global executive committee and report to global chief operating officer Matthew Harrington.

“[Lin] is one of the strongest creative agency leaders in the region and has a clear vision for integration, which will help us further advance our communications marketing ambition in Asia Pacific,” said Harrington.

Lin was most recently vice chairman of APAC as well as CEO of Greater China at McCann Worldgroup. According to him, he helped integrate digital into the creative agency's revenue drivers, so much so that digital revenue grew from 5 percent to 30 percent of the business.

Bob Grove, who has been overseeing the region for Edelman as chief operating officer since David Brain stepped down in April, will continue in his role after Lin joins.

Brain, in an earlier explanation of his decision to leave, said that his board role at the firm and various global tasks have made it "difficult" for him to sustain running the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa businesses from "islands in the middle of the South Pacific", among other reasons. 

In his new role based in Shanghai, Lin will oversee 24 offices and more than 1,500 employees for the same APACMEA region.

He is the latest creative agency leader to fly the coop from advertising and resettle into Edelman, after Rupen Desai, Mark Renshaw, Carol Potter and Jeffrey Yu.