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Sophaon and Lau join Edelman's financial practice

HONG KONG: Edelman Hong Kong’s financial communications team has two new additions – Sophie Sophaon as associate director and George Lau as senior manager. The new hires are part of overall plan to bolster the company’s growing financial communications offering.

“We are delighted to welcome these two new additions to our financial communications team, as we are always on the lookout for top talent,” said Andrew Kirk, managing director of Edelman Hong Kong and Taiwan. “It has always been our primary objective to provide exceptional service to our clients, and with [Sophaon] and [Lau] on board, we look forward to continuing our traditionally strong financial communications offering.”

Sophaon brings seven years of financial communications expertise to Edelman. Prior to joining the company, she was vice-president and director of client services at Walek & Associates, a New York-based boutique public relations agency. She moved to Hong Kong with Walek at the end of 2008 to head the office here and oversee all activities in Asia-Pacific.

Prior to Walek, Sophaon was an executive recruiter for the legal profession, serving American Lawyer 100 firms in the New York City market. Prior to this, she worked at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where she was responsible for internal communication focused on continuing legal education, compliance with firm policies and New York State Bar Association regulations.

Sophaon holds a bachelor of arts in international affairs with a minor in socio-cultural anthropology from the George Washington University.

Lau brings over 10 years of both in-house and agency financial communications expertise to the firm. Prior to joining Edelman, Lau was at Haitong International Securities Group as senior manager in the group corporate communications and investor relations department, where he focused on internal and stakeholder communications, corporate branding and sponsorship, investor relations and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Before Haitong International, Lau was a senior consultant in the corporate and financial services practice at Weber Shandwick. Lau has also worked at HSBC, Winther Personal Finance Services and JOS Technology group. 

Lau holds a bachelor of social science degree in journalism and communications from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“Edelman has provided robust public relations solutions to companies for many years, and I look forward to extending this level of service for our financial communications clients,” Sophaon said.

Established in 1985, Edelman Hong Kong has 65 employees working across practices in corporate, consumer, digital, technology and financial communications.