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Bob Pickard      

PR Specialist; Chairman for Asia-Pacific of The Huntsworth Group

Bob Pickard is the Chairman for Asia-Pacific of The Huntsworth Group based at Singapore, with senior leadership of the regional business for global communications consultancies such as Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Grayling, and Huntsworth Health. Having built award-winning public relations businesses based in the United States, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Canada, he is one of the best-known executives in the international PR industry (as such, Pickard is the lead-off speaker at the 2014 ICCO Global Summit in New Delhi on the topic: “Worldwide communication for Asian multinationals: PR’s next big thing?”).

Pickard has more than two decades of experience focused on providing PR counsel and creating communications campaigns for senior business leaders in North America and Asia-Pacific (including, over the years, coaching hundreds of executives and personally advising Bill Gates, Donald Trump, George Soros, and Nicky Oppenheimer). His clients have included Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, De Beers, Goldman Sachs, Government of Canada, GSK, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, ING, Johnson & Johnson, Kia Motors, Merck, Microsoft, Nissan, Nomura, PayPal, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Standard & Poor’s.

Winner of the ‘PR Agency Head of The Year’ at the Asia-Pacific PR awards in 2012, Pickard served Burson-Marsteller as its Asia-Pacific CEO where, for three years until 2013, he led and expanded a 38 office network of owned and affiliate operations across 16 regional markets with more than 1,000 employees. At B-M, he fostered the creation of the global firm’s Beijing-based energy practice and was a catalyst for the development of its portfolio of Asian multinational clients. He opened new operations in Shenzhen, China; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and, he put together a joint venture in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with a media content provider.

Pickard first came to Asia after a successful 12-year career in North American public relations. He was Executive Vice President of Environics Communications, a leading Canadian PR firm that he co-founded in 1994. In 1996, he opened the firm’s New York-area office and in so doing, established the first Canadian-owned PR agency in the U.S. market. Before then, he was a Vice President at Hill & Knowlton Canada, where he founded the firm’s technology practice and captained international communications projects, including global media relations for Canada’s transfer of energy technology to the Republic of Korea.

Prior to working in the PR industry, Pickard was active in public affairs and served as a political aide to Canadian federal Cabinet ministers, including the country’s 16th Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

A graduate of Canada’s Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies, Pickard frequently delivers campus lectures and provides commentary on topics such as climate change communications, digital storytelling, apology communications, Asian MNC marketing and the psychology of persuasion. He also regularly comments in the global media, e.g. “The Wall Street Journal” and “BBC World News”.

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