SHANGHAI—We Are Social, acquired two years ago by Chinese public relations giant Blue Focus, has opened a new office in Shanghai. The agency has appointed Pete Lin, formerly general manager and chief marketing strategist at Gravity Group Asia, to lead its Shanghai operations as managing director, while ad agency veteran Ying Chang will lead its creative offering. Launch clients include global beauty brand L'Oreal as well as Liebherr and GMAC. They will be served by an initial team of 15.

SINGAPORE—Edelman’s specialist research arm Edelman Berland has hired Catriona Muspratt-Williams as head of Singapore and Andrew Chapman as head of Australia. Prior to joining Edelman Berland, Muspratt-Williams was with Mediacom for a total of nine years, most recently as head of insights Asia Pacific. Chapman brings over 13 years of experience in Australia, North America and Asia, spending eight years as founder and principal at Scalability.

SINGAPORE—Ruder Finn Asia has hired Irene Yong to head the healthcare practice for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore. Yong, who most recently served as associate director at Burson-Marsteller, has worked with clients including Sanofi, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Nycomed/Takeda, GSK, Abbott, MSD, Novartis and Leo Pharma.

SYDNEY—Corporate and financial communication firms Citadel and Magnus have signed a merger agreement. The new firm, Citadel-Magnus, will have combined annual revenue of circa A$7 million and a team of 20 professionals, led by founding partners Martin Debelle, Peter Brookes, John Gardner and Helen McCombie. Citadel-Magnus will continue to service clients from offices in Sydney and Perth, working on transactions including mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, asset sales and capital raisings.