UPDATE: Donald Chan’s homecoming to Leo Burnett confirmed

The appointment of one of Leo Burnett's former rising stars follows the resignation of Wei Wei Chen, chairwoman and chief executive officer of Leo Burnett  Shanghai.

As reported earlier this week, Chan, currently JWT China’s CEO since June 2010, has resigned from the agency and is serving through the transitional period until 6 April. He will start his new job at Leo Burnett in early May.

Chan will be based in its Shanghai office and will be responsible for developing new business and overseeing the creative output for the agency’s network in mainland China, which includes service and creative hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as 27 field marketing offices throughout the country’s interior.

Eddie Booth, regional chairman and chief executive officer of Leo Burnett Greater China, told Campaign, “China is nowadays the single most important market. Leo Burnett has an ambition to be the best in China. We want to go beyond our extremely high creative standards, nurture the finest new talent, and develop our people to be the best.

"Donald has a successful track record in China which is recognised by many clients, and he knows our network and many of the Leo Burnett colleagues. He is an industry leader who can make that happen,” he continued.

Chan gathered kudos even at his early stage of his career where he started off as an account executive with Leo Burnett Greater China in Hong Kong in 1995. He leapfrogged up the career ladder to become national managing director for China, based in Shanghai in 2006.

Chan said: “It’s great to come home after a couple of years outside the Leo Burnett network. It has been enlightening and rewarding, but this is where I started my career. This is about coming home."

He added that this was the "right time" to come back to those roots. “I have all the confidence that together, we will continue to build the most innovative agency group in China.”