HONG KONG—Richard Tsang was already recognized as one of Asia’s leading financial public relations experts when, at the age of 29, he founded Strategic Public Relations Group. In the 17 years since then, SPRG has grown into the largest Asia-based public relations network, with fee income last year of more than $20 million and more than 270 people working across offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

On September 26, as a result of that accomplishment, he will be one of four senior public relations executives recognized with one of The Holmes Report’s SABRE Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement.

Tsang, who was head of Burson-Marsteller’s financial communications practice in the region before striking out on his own, has broadened the firm’s expertise beyond its capital markets work, adding corporate and marketing communications, corporate social responsibility, event marketing, issues and crisis management, digital and social media, and media and presentation training capabilities.

SPRG now represents more than 250 retainer clients including 3D Gold Jewellery, adidas, Allergan, Ben & Jerry’s, Blackberry, Bank of China, CITIC, Fuji Xerox, Galaxy Entertainment, Google, Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks, KFC, Lenovo, London Business School, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, Real Gold Mining, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Siemens, Volkswagen, and Yahoo!

Under his leadership, SPRG has been named Asia-Pacific Network of the Year in the Campaign Asia-Pacific PR Awards 2010, and Hong Kong Consultancy of the Year in 2009 and Financial Consultancy of the Year in 2011 by this publication.

Tsang has also received many awards for his professional and personal achievements. He was the 2003 Young Entrepreneur Award recipient at the DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards; earned the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award from Enterprise Asia in 2009; and in 2006  picked up the China Enterprise Award for Creative Businessmen from the China Marketing Association and China Enterprise News.

He is also a co-author of Public Relations Theory, published by the Commercial Press Hong Kong Limited.

A committed internationalist, Tsang was elected vice president, Asia-Pacific, for Public Relations Organisation International in 2009, representing partners in Asia on the PROI board. He is also a frequent speaker on panels for international forums and seminars on a wide array of industry topics including investor relations, brand communications and marketing, media relations, and issue and crisis management.