Former OMG China president Ian Lee joins 3R Group as CEO and partner

Lee (pictured), has resigned from his OMG roles and will be leaving the agency this month. He told Campaign that 3R has an ambition to build up the local advertising and communication group into an international company, especially as many of its clients are going global.

“When the US has Omnicom and IPG, Japan has Dentsu, France has Publics and Aegis, and the UK has WPP, why can’t China have a few leading communications groups?” he asked. "Especially when the Chinese Governement is geared up to promote cultural and media business in China; hence there are lots of opportunities."

"So my choice was either to stay as an outsider in a foreign multinational company in China or be with a Chinese company and join the ride of new opportunities," Lee added.

He explained the structure of 3R Group included Walk-on Advertising (三人行广告), which has been among the top two media agencies bidding for CCTV advertising slots over the past ten years, serving many famous local brands. 3R also owns Digitop Communications Group (众成就广告传播集团), comprising businesses in online advertising and e-commerce solutions.

3R Group is working with an extensive list of top clients on CCTV including Taobao.com, Changan Ford, Wang Laoji, Bright Dairy, Yanjing Beer, and Yunnan Baiyao.

As the CEO and partner of 3R Group, Lee will be in charge of the overall business from strategy and daily operations to HR. The total headcount across its offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is around 150-strong, and the company is planning to publicly list in China in 2013.

Over the past seven years, Lee rose through the OMG ranks from finance director to CFO, before being promoted to his current role in September last year. Prior to OMG, he held senior positions at STAR TV of News Corporation. and ChinaByte.com.

His CV is not that of a conventional media veteran, With a degree in genetics from Sichuan University, Lee actually started his early career in the zoo industry in China from 1987 and only moved into the media industry 14 years ago after earning a management master's degree in Sydney.

Reported last May, Doug Pearce, formerly media management lead for Asia-Pacific at Accenture, has been named CEO for Omnicom Media Group (OMG) China.