TORONTO — Bob Pickard will be returning to Asia as director general of communications for Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
 
Pickard, who spent more than a decade in Asia as an agency leader, will be overseeing all global communications and brand marketing for the 6-year-old multilateral development bank.

He replaces Laurel Ostfield. Ostfield and her husband, former Weber Shandwick APAC executive VP of insights and analytics, launched Toronto firm 996 Advisors in February.

Since 2016, Pickard has run his own Toronto consultancy, Signal Leadership Communication, which focuses on executive communications. That includes working with CEOs thrust into the public spotlight.
 
Pickard, who has more than two decades of experience, also had a brief stint as National’s Toronto managing director.  
 
Before launching Signal, Pickard spent more than a decade in Asia, most recently as chairman of Huntsworth Asia-Pacific. Pickard spent 18 months at Huntsworth, which he joined after serving as Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific CEO for three years. Before Burson, Pickard spent more than five years with Edelman in North Asia, launching the firm in Korea before overseeing the sub-region. He relocated to Asia after being one of the founding partners of Canada's Environics Communications