Edelman APAC appoints new CEO

The former editor-in-chief of The Straits Times, Warren Fernandez, has been appointed the APAC CEO of Edelman, taking over from interim APAC CEO Dave Samson, global chairman of corporate affairs, after the departure of Stephen Kehoe last June.

Warren, who joins Edelman’s global executive leadership team and will report to global president and chief operating officer Mathew Harrington, will oversee 21 regional offices with 1300 employees from his Singapore base.

“I’m very excited to join a firm that I have admired and worked with, as a client and partner, over the years,” Warren said.

Having started out as a political reporter with The Straits Times before moving on to become news editor, foreign editor and deputy editor, Warren eventually took over as editor-in-chief in 2012 after a stint as global manager with Royal Dutch Shell for its Future Energy project and working with teams in London and the Hague.

He is also presently president of the World Editors Forum (WEF) and sits on numerous boards including Singapore Press Holdings (Overseas), SPH (Americas) Pte, Heritage Media Pte and Asia News Network (ANN) as well as the Singapore Symphony Group, the National Arts Council and served as president of the Institute of Public Relations Singapore in 2009.

Matthew Harrington had this to say: “Warren’s deep understanding of the news and media ecosystem – and his experience transforming a news outlet into an integrated multi-media content platform – will be a tremendous value-add to clients and our own insights and capabilities.”

“Additionally, our organisation will benefit from Warren’s long standing professional and academic interest in politics and foreign policy amid today’s dynamic geopolitical landscape,”

Added Warren:”I believe there is enormous potential to continue to expand upon the vital thought of leadership, as well as media brand and strategic communications advice we provide to our clients.”

Edelman has added several people to its APAC leadership group recently for Greater China, Edelman Australia and Edelman India and recently appointed Julia Wei as CEO of Edelman Singapore, to which she returns having previously been the director for Head of Consumer Practice.