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Netflix hires McDonald’s Jessica Lee as streaming company’s first APAC comms chief

Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee

Netflix, the internet movie and TV streaming site, has hired the company’s first communications director for the Asia Pacific region.

According to The Holmes Report, Jessica Lee, the chief communications officer at McDonald’s Greater China has taken on the role.

The Singaporean will return home to build the American company’s image as it looks to establish itself in a market that Mark Britt, the head of rival Southeast Asian streaming platform iflix, described in an interview with Mumbrella in August last year as a “knuckle fight.”

Lee joins a company that is looking to rapidly staff up ahead of a major push into Asia. As Mumbrella reported yesterday, Netflix is looking for a regional partner marketing director, social media managers for the region and for Korea, and an APAC publicity assets manager.

The company is also looking for a social media agency for the region, with a pitch expected to be nearing completion.

Today, the company announced that it has subscribers in more than 70 million homes in 60 countries, and has made the service available in markets including Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Indonesia. A notable exception, for now, is China.

Lee’s role at McDonald’s will be filled by her former deputy Regina Hui, The Holmes Report is reporting. Hui will move up from her current position, senior director of communications for McDonald’s China.

Lee brings to the role 30 years of communications experience on both client side, with Standard Chartered Bank, Aviva, and ESPN Star Sports, and agency, with Burson Marsteller.

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