James Wright Named Managing Director Of Havas PR Operations In APAC Region

-- The Current Managing Director of Australia's Red Agency Adds APAC Oversight to His Responsibilities

NEW YORK, June 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- James Wright, managing director of Australia's award-winning Red Agency—a member of the global PR collective Havas PR—has been tapped to significantly increase his role at Havas as the managing director of the PR operations in the Asia Pacific region. Wright will continue in his role as head of Red Agency, and will add responsibility for overseeing the PR functions in the APAC countries.

James joined Havas and Red Agency in April 2011, and his impact was immediate—he doubled the size of the Australian operation in less than two years. During his tenure, the agency has won business from such major brands as Accor, Origin Energy, Yahoo!7 and WWF. In 2012 Red Agency picked up 12 national and international awards, making it one of the most-awarded PR agencies in Australia during the period, including becoming one of the first Australian PR agencies to win a Cannes Lion, with two at the 2012 awards. In 2013, James will serve as a judge for the Clio Awards and at Cannes.

"The APAC region has a great appetite for technology, and this sits at the heart of many of our ideas. My vision for the region is to develop campaigns that are deliberately social; they don't have to necessarily live in social media, but they are campaigns that people want to share, talk about and interact with," said Wright. "As we are a new kid on the block, we don't have the same old ideas—we have new ones and think differently about how we achieve them. And our award-winning campaigns speak for themselves."

"We are excited for James to bring his winning leadership style and ambition to oversee our expansion in the APAC region," said Marian Salzman, CEO, Havas PR North America, and chairperson, Havas PR global steering committee. "He understands that in all our practices around the globe, Havas wants to break from conventional marketing thinking, break new ground and be unconventional—and James does all that on a daily basis."

Under James' guidance, Red Agency has recently packaged new specialist offers, including: 

• #RedSocial—Social media community strategy, content planning and management
• 100% Red Press—Pure media relations offer
• Red Agency Peaks—Unique in the market; campaigns that develop a CEO's profile
• Red Guerrilla—Experiential, with specialist team members to deliver the work
• Lev_REDge—Leveraging corporate sponsorships

In 2008, James was PRCA Consultant of the Year (U.K.) and International CSR Leader (PR News).  Previously a board director at Grayling U.K. (owned by the Huntsworth Group), at 26 he became the youngest board director in a Huntsworth-owned agency, Trimedia.

Around the world, Havas PR agencies are creating the news—for clients and for themselves. For more on Havas PR, please visit the agency's website at havaspr.com.

About Havas PR  
The PR arm of communications holding company Havas Worldwide, we have a presence in more than 75 countries across six continents. Our collective is ninth in size and third in social media effectiveness; in 2012, we were the second most awarded PR agency in the world at the Clios, among the most shortlisted PR networks at Cannes and the only PR network with a jury member at both Cannes and the Clios. We count among our members the Financial Agency of the Year and the number two Healthcare PR Agency of the Year. We are a collective, connected, pitching together, borderless, and focused on new tools, new technologies and a new way of working. We are one collective, connected for one commitment: getting to the future first. Faster. For more on Havas PR, visit havaspr.com.

Media Contact: Maria Leal
Account Executive
maria.leal@havasww.com
+1-617-913-5799