Weber Shandwick expands into SEA

• Weber Shandwick expands public affairs practice
• Jaffe relocates to Singapore
• Manage multi-country assignments

Regional - Weber Shandwick is expanding its public affairs practice from China to Southeast Asia in a move which sees senior vice president Brad Jaffe relocate from Beijing to Singapore.

The practice was initially established by executive vice president John Russell who moved to Beijing at the end of 2005, after previously heading Weber Shandwick's public affairs operation in Brussels. It has since grown quickly to encompass local and Asia Pacific regional public and regulatory affairs, issues management and high-end strategic consultancy assignments for major Chinese and global clients.

Jaffe will manage some of the firm's multi-country assignments from Singapore as well as develop a full public affairs practice in the Southeast Asia region - extending as far as Australia.

"Our public affairs practice has been a huge success story for Weber Shandwick in China over the last three years, sustaining very impressive growth rates indeed," Tim Sutton, chairman of Weber Shandwick Asia Pacific, said.

"Nearly all countries and societies in the Asia Pacific region, whatever their system of government, are witnessing greater social pluralism and consumer empowerment. Traditional style public affairs and issues management is now rapidly merging into online reputation and brand development strategies. For these reasons, we now judge the time is right to expand this practice across our region."

In another development, Robert Magyar, senior vice president in Weber Shandwick's Tokyo office, is moving to Beijing to join the public affairs team.