Burson-Marsteller has announced three key appointments in Greater China with Elaine Chan joining as Managing Director, Financial Communications, based in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Helen Huan, Managing Director, will be based in Beijing, and Candice Yeo joins as Shanghai Market Leader. Both Huan and Yeo report to Daisy King, President of Burson-Marsteller China and Head of the firm’s U.S.-China Specialty Group, and Elaine Chan reports to Antoine Calendrier, Hong Kong Market Leader.
Chan joins Burson-Marsteller from Ruder Finn where she led financial communications for Asia-Pacific. Prior to that she was an Associate Partner at Watatawa Consulting, where she developed and managed strategic regional communication programs for regional and global companies, and capital markets transactions.
Clients served include BNY Mellon, China High Growth Fund and Bloomberg LP. Elaine began her journalistic career at the South China Morning Post as a reporter, and later worked for global news wires including serving as Bloomberg News’ Shanghai Bureau Chief.
“Communications involving sophisticated financial transactions like mergers, acquisitions and public listings require a deep understanding of the many complexities involved,” said Calendrier.
“Elaine’s depth of experience and understanding will be the perfect match for clients needing that support. We are thrilled to have her on board and believe financial communications is an essential contributor to our overall growth.”
Yeo comes to Burson-Marsteller from Honeywell Process Solutions, where she managed marketing communications across Asia-Pacific, Russia and the Middle East. Before Honeywell, Yeo was General Manager at Text100 Public Relations in Beijing and Consumer Practice Leader at Edelman in Shanghai.
Building upon Shanghai’s strength in brand marketing, Yeo’s experience developing strategic communications campaigns for global consumer, healthcare and technology brands across Asia-Pacific brings greater depth and breadth to the market. Her expertise includes marketing communications, brand management, digital media, media training, thought leadership and reputation management.
Huan, a technology and digital industry veteran, has been appointed as senior counselor to drive new relationships and support the needs of Chinese technology as they go global. Her expertise includes social media, digital and integrated marketing communications, information technology, Internet industries and consumer electronics.
Before joining Burson-Marsteller, Huan was Senior Vice President of BlueCurrent Beijing, overseeing the brand in mainland China. Prior to this, Huan was Senior Director of the Technology Practice at Edelman China, and Brand and Marketing Strategy Manager and Public Relations Manager at Intel, amongst other agency and corporate roles.
“We are thrilled to welcome Candice and Helen to our China leadership team,” said King. “With over 40 years of combined industry experience at top agency and in-house roles, they strengthen our bench in China significantly and provide a level of depth and expertise in some of our strongest disciplines and growth areas: Technology, digital and brand marketing. We are very excited about the coming year.”
This past year has been one of Burson-Marsteller Greater China’s best seasons, with renewed effort to put people first and generate impressive growth. The year 2015 has seen the firm experience double digit growth in China, with Chinese clients growing by 30 per cent and digital work growth of over 50 per cent.
The leadership appointments come at a time when the agency is transforming its business to build upon core strengths, while offering more integrated marketing services.
