Kevin Lee leaves Ogilvy for Leagas Delaney
Leagas Delaney Shanghai has hired one of Asia’s top creatives, Kevin Lee, as Executive Creative Director/Partner of the Shanghai agency. The Malaysian born Lee is currently the Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai and has been working in China for 12 years.
Under Lee’s guidance, Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai is ranked the top creative agency in China in the Campaign Brief Asia Rankings. He has led his team to win awards for The North Face, Sprite, Lee Jeans, Fanta, Castrol, Midea, Semir apparel, 361, Tsingtao and Unicef. They’ve won in print, film, outdoor, design, interactive, promo, mobile, direct and media at every major award show. Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai was the most awarded agency at AdFest 2010, taking home 13 awards and 7 finalists. The agency recently picked up 4 Clios.
Lee is actively involved in the Chinese art scene. He’s worked with the local art community on a number of projects, including the Nike “Run Free” campaign, which was ranked the second most awarded campaign in the world by The Gunn Report. Lee’s love of film prompted him to step behind the camera as a director, which lead to him being shortlisted at Cannes and AdFest in 2010 in the Young Director category.
Lee has also served on the judging panels at D&AD, Young Guns, One Show Young Creative Award, London International Award, New York Art Director Club, New York Festival, AdFest, Busan AdStars, Longxi, Asia Pacific Awards and China 4As.
“I am really lucky to have had the opportunity to run the biggest creative department in China for the past 5 years and to have so many talented creatives helping me make it the top ranking agency in China. A big thanks is due to Khai (Tham Khai Meng) and Eugene (Cheong) as well. I am excited by my new adventure and the opportunity to work with the legendary Tim Delaney. I look forward to assembling a great team of creatives from many disciplines and coming up with fresh solutions for our clients.”
“Kevin has an amazing track record of producing great campaigns; he’s also lovely guy. Both are important to us. The timing is good also: China is maturing fast and the kind of work required now is fresh, original China-centric ideas. We’re delighted he’s decided Leagas Delaney is where he stands the best chance to produce that work,” stated Tim Delaney.
Jacob Johansen, Managing Partner said, “Kevin’s arrival signals that Leagas Delaney Shanghai is moving into the next phase of development. Over the last couple of months we have brought in some amazingly talented creatives, who we believe are the first wave of Chinese creatives proving themselves on an international stage. Under Kevin’s leadership, we are ready to develop new client relationships offering world-class creative work.”
12 Comments
he is a very good ecd.
Malaysia Boleh!
Kevin Lee is truly a lovely person.
Not just as an ad man but also as a friend and mentor!
Kevin is really is a true gentleman and great ad man, can’t wait to see him on the other side doing amazing work. congrats, bro!
Leagas Delaney still exists??? Who knew?
huge huge huge loss for ogilvy.
not only is kevin a great creative. but he’s a really good person.
good luck replacing him Eugene.
Congrats bro!!! Keep up the good work for the industry here in China!
Well done and congrats to Kevin. He will not be easy to replace.
Leagas is unknow in China, so it benefit from kevin’s moving. Maybe it’s loss for kevin too,need time to test.
Kevin Boleh!
This should be fun…the master of the art of copy and a ‘master’ at pro-active….Leagas had to hire a ‘big’ name to get some attention…and this is what was available. Eagerly looking forward to see if the legendary delaney will allow the pro-active work to take dominance at the expense of the real work…the way ogilvy is known for doing.
Congrats Kevin!