Weber Shandwick brings in senior leader, Natalie Lowe, as VP

Based in Shanghai, Lowe (pictured) will be responsible for supporting key clients including Suntech Power, whose account which the agency won last summer) and driving business growth in China across the clean technology, B2B and technology business practices. She reports to Darren Burns, the agency's managing director for Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Lowe is Australian Chinese, and fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. She has been working in the Asia-Pacific region since 1999 including postings in Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong, and mainland China.

The agency says she has built a strong international portfolio that includes performing a broad range of in-house communications roles for Pratt & Whitney and UTC Fire & Security, and acting as a consultant to leading multinationals such as ExxonMobil, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and ROC Oil.

Lowe has also established and integrated communications strategies across Asia; coached senior leaders in all aspects of communications; designed and implemented employee engagement programs; and developed and implemented a wide range of marketing and communication plans.

"Natalie's appointment highlights the growing depth of our leadership team," Burns said. "We continue to make senior hires that grow our Asian-based clients as they seek market leadership positions around the world. It also indicates our growing ability to hub world class global work out of China, and Natalie will be a key driver of this."

Instead of a slowdown, Weber Shandwick is seeng lots of strong growth in China, for multinational companies as well as for Chinese companies that are doing business domestically and outside China, Burns added.

Reported back in March, Weber Shandwick has appointed Alice Lee as account director and Zoe Wu as account manager for its China consumer marketing team.