Adrian Lee

Adrian graduated from the University of Durham in 2007 with a degree in Modern European Languages and a Full Palatinate for his endeavours on the sports field.

He then embarked upon a career in digital marketing and advertising working at MediaCom, one of the world’s biggest media agencies.

After 5 years working in London, Adrian and his wife’s desire to reconnect with their Asian heritage and to explore an exciting part of the world saw them transfer first to Jakarta, Indonesia and then onto Hong Kong where Adrian’s family originates from.  After 5 years abroad, Adrian and his wife returned to London in 2016 for the birth of their first son Obie and they welcomed their second son Remi in late 2017.

Over the last decade Adrian has worked with some of the world’s biggest and most influential brands, preparing them for the digital economy.  This includes Coca-Cola, Burberry, AB InBev, P&G, Honda, Dell, the VW Group and BOSE.  He is currently employed at another global media agency, Vizeum, working as their Global Digital Strategy and Innovation Director and helping clients partner with the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Snapchat and Tencent as well as building test-and-learn roadmaps for new marketing technologies, e.g. virtual reality, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc.

Adrian remains a keen sportsman and after leaving university, used his Rugby Fives background to captain the UK Wallball side where he won a team title at the World Championships in Portland, Oregon as well as a world doubles title.  During his time in Hong Kong, he captained the Chinese national development cricket team for 2 years.  As well as touring Asia extensively to play cricket with Cricket Hong Kong, he was also selected in the player draft for Hong Kong’s professional T20 Blitz tournament, playing alongside Ian Bell, Misbah-ul-Haq, Samuel Badree and Saeed Ajmal and against a host of other cricketing household names.

What guidance would you give to your younger self on the day you left St Paul’s?

Grab your earliest opportunity to live and work abroad.  It’ll push you out of your comfort zone, expand your global network of business contacts and fast-track your career and personal development to new heights.  Most importantly you’ll build a whole host of new friendships.  I look back upon my year abroad as part of my university studies as a formative year that prepared me well for working abroad in Asia.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

My dad told me to hope for the best but expect the worst.  It means I prepare everything to the fullest possible degree, regardless whether it’s an important work meeting, devising strategy for a cricket match or even planning things to do whilst on holiday!

Why did you choose your current career?

To be honest I fell into my career somewhat although there were early signs that digital marketing was always going to be the type of work I’d land in.  I’ve always been tech-minded and an early adopter, whether that was discovering new music on Napster or finding live-streamed sports online on obscure websites.

I’d never really considered a job in marketing until I realised that my fascination with the persuasive power of the internet and technology could turn into a career path.  Clearly that persuasive power has been thrust into the limelight recently because of its misuse by big tech but it remains a fast-paced, dynamic and young industry to work in that allows you to do your job from pretty much any country in the world.