Claire Li is a strategic communications advisor and practitioner with a wealth of experience helping multinational companies in Greater China navigate complex stakeholder issues and shape their communication strategies for brand and business growth. In a career spanning nearly three decades, Claire has developed and executed public affairs, corporate, brand and product communication strategies for top-tier brands across multiple industries including financial services, automotive, energy, healthcare, technology and retail. ​

Claire rejoins Hill+Knowlton Strategies after over a decade serving in communications leadership roles at multinational companies in China, including Ford, GE and Starbucks. During her tenure at Ford, Claire rebuilt Ford’s communications & public affairs team in China and led the roll-out of integrated communication and stakeholder engagement plans, contributing to the success of the automaker’s most aggressive five-year growth plan in history. Claire also transformed corporate and brand communications for GE in China to support the company’s digital industrial growth strategies through signature campaigns leveraging all online and offline platforms across paid and earned media. Most recently, Claire led all internal and external communications for Starbucks in China, building and protecting the brand in the company’s largest market outside the US.​

Claire started her communications career with Hill & Knowlton in Hong Kong where she was a senior consultant with the firm’s corporate communications practice. Her agency experience also included heading the strategic communications practice in Shanghai for APCO, and later building and leading the corporate communications & government affairs practice in China for Fleishman-Hillard, where she advised C-suite clients on government policies, market access, issues and crisis management and stakeholder engagement. ​

Claire holds a BA in English from Beijing Foreign Studies University, an MA in English from The University of Connecticut and an MBA from The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.