Our man in Beijing is Flint Township native
Scott Kronick who rubs elbows
with corporate bigwigs and celebrities

By Kristin Longley | The Flint Journal
August 18, 2008

You might say Scott Kronick is the guy to know these days in China.

As all eyes are trained on Beijing for the Olympic Games, the Flint Township native has been tapped by corporate giants and the media as someone who can bridge the culture gap between China and the Western world.

Kronick, a Carman-Ainsworth graduate, worked his way up to the high-profile gig while living in Asia these last 17 years, 13 of those in Beijing.

He is now president of public relations giant Ogilvy's China operations, and part of his job is to coach Chinese officials on what outsiders expect of them while in the Olympic spotlight -- namely, transparency and communication.

He said it's a constant battle to assure them that all news does not have to be good news.

"There's a lot of misunderstandings on both sides, and a kind of fear of the unknown," said Kronick, 45. "One role I see is to be able to bridge that misunderstanding with fact."

Though he doesn't always see it that way, Kronick's life is a glamorous one, tinged with celebrities, corporate bigwigs and government leaders. You might have heard of a friend of his: Li Ning, an Olympic medalist who ran the torch during the opening ceremonies.

Since the games began, Kronick has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and several other media outlets about Chinese public affairs and national pride. He regularly deals with the company's big-name clients, such as Volkswagen, adidas and UPS, and advises them on how to make the most of their Olympic sponsorships.

But it's not all business -- he said he has had time to catch Olympic events with his Taiwanese wife, Lisa Wei, and two children, Jacquelin and Samuel (whose first language is Mandarin). The family lives in a posh apartment in the heart of Beijing's central business district.

Kronick likely gets much of his public relations savvy from his mother, Maxine Kronick, a former event director for Flint, who lives in Florida and is divorced from retired Dr. Peter Kronick, of Flushing.

Peter Kronick said his son sat next to actress Glenn Close during the U.S.-China basketball game, and not far from President Bush during the opening ceremonies. He was recently invited to a party with Quincy Jones.

"He's become immune to the celebrities thing because he does it so much," said his father, 73, who is remarried. "It's thrilling for us. I'm kind of living the Olympics through Scott."

Scott Kronick graduated from Carman-Ainsworth in 1981 after playing on the school's state championship-winning soccer team. He went to Syracuse University and soon went into public relations, first in New York and then in Taiwan, where he met his wife.

Four years later he landed in Beijing, and he continues to learn more about the foreign culture (it took him two tries to get his Chinese driver's license).

Kronick has seen Beijing transform into an economic boomtown, while still carrying traces of poverty. He said he jokes with his parents that the American dream is alive and well and can be found in China.

In a chapter he wrote for a book about Westerners in China, he describes the contrasts:

"I remember seeing a person driving a BMW right next to a man riding a bicycle with a monkey in the front basket; or there was the peasant carrying bricks on a horse-driven cart while chatting on his mobile phone."

As a public relations specialist, Kronick helps multinational clients deal with emergencies or uneasy situations, such as when the United States accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade or Asia's brush with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a.k.a. SARS.

As the self-appointed Olympics coordinator for Ogilvy, he attended the 2004 games in Athens and the 2006 games in Turin. Midway through this year's games, he said Beijing has never been more hectic and the whole country has Olympic fever.

"I'm feeling guilty because I'm having so much fun," Kronick said. "This is something I always wanted to do."

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