Hill+Knowlton announces Jun Xu as CEO, China
Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K), one of the world’s leading public relations firms, has announced a significant step forward in its growth agenda with a new leadership structure for its mainland China and Hong Kong region.
Effective November 16, Jun Xu will take on the role of CEO, China, with responsibility for H+K’s strategy and performance across the region, reporting to Global Chairman and CEO AnnaMaria DeSalva. QC Liang, who has been leading the market since 2016, will assume a new leadership role, bringing executive focus to the development of H+K’s business in the critical Greater Bay Area, including Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
“The expansion of our senior management team will significantly strengthen our opportunity to participate in the growth of these high priority markets,” said DeSalva.
“I’m delighted to welcome Jun Xu to H+K. As a respected client leader over the course of his career, Jun has helped major global corporations advance their commercial and reputation objectives in Asia, spanning numerous industrial sectors and end markets. His roots are in the development of global agency services for China and the region. I know him to be a dedicated leader and colleague, and I look forward to working with him to help build the next era of growth for our firm.”
Xu brings more than 28 years of experience in agency and corporate leadership roles. Most recently, he was Chairman and CEO for Greater China at MSL, where he led the firm’s operational and strategic development for the region. Prior to MSL, he was Vice President of Sustainable Business & Communications for Unilever North Asia, where he helped activate the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) as a strategic growth driver for the region. Xu also spent nearly 15 years at DuPont, progressing through a number of general management and communication leadership roles. He served as General Manager of DuPont China in Shanghai, and subsequently as corporate communications lead for all of Asia Pacific. Earlier in his career, Xu spent nearly a decade with Burson-Marsteller, starting as the firm’s first local hire in mainland China, and advancing through a series of assignments across Asia Pacific.
In his new role, Liang’s focus will be to drive growth in the Greater Bay Area and support further development of H+K across China, ensuring strong strategic and creative synergies between global and local capabilities and initiatives.
“I am especially grateful to QC for his leadership through this challenging year, and it’s been inspiring to see how well our colleagues in China can perform in the most trying of circumstances. Now, with his dedicated focus on the Greater Bay Area, we will more rapidly expand our presence and penetration of this high potential ecosystem of multinational companies, which is a challenge QC has wanted to address for some time,” said DeSalva. “This expansion of our senior team improves our scale and versatility, which will benefit H+K across China and the world.”
About Hill+Knowton
Hill+Knowlton Strategies Inc. is an international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. H+K has over 80 offices in more than 40 markets, as well as an extensive associate network, delivering award winning campaigns to clients across all sectors and disciplines and with a focus on continued innovation for the industry. Recent innovations include Flight School +, a crisis communications training and simulation tool, Better Impact™, a new approach to citizenship and sustainability consultancy, and H+K Smarter™, a behavioral science unit. Headquartered in New York, the firm is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups.
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