APCO Worldwide strengthened its expertise in public affairs and healthcare through the addition of JJ Lee, who joins a growing leadership team in Singapore to help oversee Southeast Asia and Korea markets as senior director, announced James Yi, managing director, APCO Southeast Asia and Korea.
Lee’s hire demonstrates APCO’s ongoing focus on partnering with clients as they navigate increasingly complex political landscapes in the region.
“Changing geopolitical and regulatory landscapes signal quite a bit of uncertainty for players in both the public and private sectors,” said Yi. “JJ has a sharp eye for reading what these changes mean at both regional and national levels, and mapping out strategic opportunities for our clients. She is a valuable addition to the APCO team as well as for all our clients.”
A policy and communications expert with over 12 years of experience as a lead consultant to government think tanks and the private sector, Lee will be charged with counseling clients in both public and private sectors around partnership negotiations, NGO and CSO relations, community program development, crisis communications and impact assessment.
Prior to joining APCO, Lee held the role of vice president, regional healthcare lead APAC, at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (WE Communications). In this role, she led the development of multimarket patient advocacy campaigns in oncology, global corporate narrative building workshops, and integration of digital and marketing strategies to public affairs. Lee specializes in pharmaceutical reimbursement strategy, medical technology regulations and sustainable energy.
“The world is moving in such a way that government relations, digital strategy and public relations cannot function in silos. Each function needs to be not only aware of but be in lockstep with others to achieve real impact,” said Lee. “Too often I see one campaign being developed in isolation of the other, and that’s where mistakes happen.”
Lee has also held posts in Korea as a lecturer in the Korea Development Institute (KDI) Graduate School of Public Policy and Management and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. At KDI, she helped to develop training programs for civil servants from developing nations, in partnership with the World Bank Global Development Learning Network around public policy and foreign direct investment strategies.
Lee joins a growing team of communications, public affairs, health care, technology and corporate branding experts at APCO with deep ties in Southeast Asia, including Ambassador Devinda R. Subasinghe, Rami Sharaf, Mike Chinoy, Yuli Ismartono, Stephanie Tan and Levie Cequena.
