The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) has launched a new professional membership association called PRCA Southeast Asia. The association will represent PR and communications consultancies, in-house communications teams and individuals throughout the region. It will be chaired by Lee Nugent MPRCA, regional director APAC, Text 100 and run by Tara Munis, who is relocating from London to Singapore.

The founding members of the association includes Affluence PR, Blue Totem Communications, Golin, Grayling, H+K Strategies, LEWIS, MHP Communications, Omnicom PR Group, Rice Communications, Text 100, The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, and WE Worldwide. Nugent said: “PRCA Southeast Asia will help PR and comms professionals to connect, share, learn and drive best practice as we grow the impact and effectiveness of what we do.”

Francis Ingham MPRCA, PRCA director general and ICCO chief executive, said: “The PRCA has extended our offering to Southeast Asia in response to practitioners telling us that they want a professional body that covers the whole region, and offers international reach. “I am delighted that so many prestigious agencies are our founding members, and I look forward to our membership growing even larger. I also look forward to working closely with the national PR associations that exist across the region. Working together, we can help PR practitioners even more in their pursuit of PR excellence.”