Serge Dumont Senior Vice President, President Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa and Chairman Asia Pacific, Omnicom Group Inc.

Serge Dumont is Senior Vice President, President Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa (‘APIMA’) & Chairman Asia Pacific of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), a leading global marketing and communications company. With over 25 years experience working in Asia Pacific, Mr. Dumont has been instrumental in extending Omnicom’s footprint in the region since joining the company in 2006 as Senior Vice President & President Asia Pacific. He was appointed to his current role in July 2009.

Mr. Dumont, a French businessman, commenced his international career in Taiwan, where he identified a market opportunity to provide strategic consultancy to Western companies wishing to position themselves in Mainland China. Consequently in 1985, at age 25, he moved to Beijing and founded Interasia, China’s first Public Relations Consultancy Joint Venture. Quickly acquiring a roster of Fortune 500 clients, the agency soon become the market leader and earned Mr. Dumont a reputation for being the “founder of the communications industry in China.” Selling the business in 1993 to Edelman, Mr. Dumont was appointed Group Executive Vice President and President Asia and subsequently served on the company’s Board until 1998. Given his unique understanding of the China market, Mr. Dumont has been frequently retained to advise Governments and multilateral organisations. In addition to establishing Springford Investments Ltd. to continue his personal entrepreneurial interests, he held a number of senior advisory roles from 1998 to 2005. Most notably, in 2003 he was appointed to lead a team of crisis management experts during the SARS outbreak to provide counsel to the top leadership team of the Beijing Municipal Government and to the World Health Organisation. During this period he was also appointed as a Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Government and was named a Special Representative for UNAIDS, the United Nations program on HIV/AIDS. A committed philanthropist and supporter of the arts, Mr. Dumont has also been a pioneer in driving awareness for social and cultural causes in China and fostering talent. As then President of the Rotary Club of Beijing, in 2003 Mr. Dumont conceived and organized China’s first celebrity charity function to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. Bringing together an alliance of leading international Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) and Government bodies, the event won international recognition. In 2004, he also established the industry’s first scholarship fund to develop qualified communications professionals at leading universities (www.sergedumontfund.org) in partnership with the China Youth Development Foundation, to which he is now a Trustee.

Currently Mr. Dumont sits on a number of corporate and advisory boards including the Advisory Board of the Tsinghua University School of Journalism and Communications, the Corporate Advisory Board of CEIBS and the International Advisory Board of the Beijing Music Festival. He also sits on an expert panel, the Eminent Persons Group, for the United Nations’ Silk Road City Awards Scheme and is a member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum (APLF) for HIV/AIDS and Development.

These endeavours, coupled with his business and trade achievements, have resulted in Mr. Dumont receiving a number of national and international honors, as well as professional awards. These include: Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor); Chevalier des Palmes Académiques (Knight of the Order of Palms); Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Literature); Grand Officer, Stella della Solidarieta Italiana (Grand Officer of the Star of Italian Solidarity); Officer of the Ouissam Alaouite (Order of the Throne of Morocco); Officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium; Conseiller du Commerce Extérieur de la France (France’s Foreign Trade Advisor); and most recently UNAIDS’ Gold Medal for Outstanding Contributions to the AIDS Response.

Mr. Dumont is a frequent speaker and commentator on China related issues and co-authored ‘Brand Warriors – China’; the first book to analyze top Chinese companies wishing to internationalize their brands. He holds dual degrees from the Sorbonne University in Paris and later studied at the Taiwan Normal University and the Political Institute in Taipei. Fluent in Mandarin, English and French, he also maintains a basic knowledge of Italian, German and Japanese.