He is succeeded by Robert Grieves, who will become MD of Edelman HK on 1 April.
Spurrier departs after five years with Edelman, which he joined after a short-lived stint at Weber Shandwick. He arrived in Hong Kong in 1972 and founded Burson Marsteller in the city in 1973. Spurrier then spent 13 years with Hongkong Land, before founding and selling Turner Spurrier to The Rowland Company. In 1995, Spurrier established Ludgate Asia, which was sold to Interpublic Group in 1997, and eventually merged into Weber Shandwick in 2001.
Grieves, meanwhile, joins Edelman from the ACE Group of Companies, where he has been VP of global corporate communications for the past four years. After stints as China correspondent for The Economist and The Times in Beijing during the Eighties, Grieves joined Burson-Marsteller New York, before heading marketing and communications for Merrill Lynch Asia-Pacific from 1994 to 1999.
"Bob Grieves‚ media and boardroom experience will be invaluable in taking Edelman in Hong Kong further forward," said Edelman Asia-Pacific president Alan VanderMolen. "Since joining the company in 2002, Martin Spurrier has transformed our Hong Kong practice into a market leader with an envied blue-chip client list, and has grown revenue and consultancy staff more than four times in five years."
Spurrier will be based in the UK but will return to Hong Kong frequently. He will also be creating a new role for Edelman in which he will counsel the firm‚s senior leaders worldwide.
