Singapore – The Asia Pacific arm of global communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) has announced two key changes in their senior leadership lineup; with Polka Yu appointed as deputy to the APAC president, and Joe Peng as chief digital officer at BCW Asia-Pacific.
Both new appointees will report directly to Matt Stafford, President, BCW Asia-Pacific.
Through her new role, Yu will work alongside Stafford in implementing the next phase of BCW’s three-year growth strategy in APAC built around investments in creative technology, research, and content production; and leveraging the agency’s leadership in reputation management, Asia-based multinationals, and the information and communications technology, consumer and healthcare sectors.
Meanwhile, Peng will spearhead the optimization of the region’s core digital innovation backbone, including establishing new digital platforms of excellence around data analytics and artificial intelligence.
Yu’s background is composed of a decade of work for BCW in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou helping multi-national companies with their China campaigns. After relocating to Hong Kong from mainland China in 2014, she shifted her focus to supporting Chinese companies with their going-global strategies. Since 2018, she has led BCW’s regional integrated communications practice that used insights and creative technology to develop compelling campaigns, many of which have won many prominent industry awards.
On the other hand, Peng has a 15-year work background, which has delivered digital media campaigns for clients across industries including aviation, computer, cosmetics, education, entertainment, finance, semiconductor, and manufacturing. Earlier in his career, Peng led digital innovation at Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe.
Speaking about her appointment, Yu stated, “Our efforts to bring together the best industry talent to tell powerful and precise stories that move people on behalf of our clients, deliver impressive business results despite the COVID-19 disruption, and innovate to set new standards for the future of communications have paid off. But there is still much to do, and I am beyond thrilled to be part of the driving force in this next chapter.”
Meanwhile, Peng commented, “BCW innovated in response to the digital transformation needs of clients brought on by COVID-19 at a scale and speed we never thought possible. Looking to the year ahead, our priority is to maintain the quality and grow the range of BCW’s digital services we deliver at a regional level to help our clients gain a competitive advantage.”
For Stafford, the new roles of Yu and Peng will bring more critical success for BCW, as he has seen the achievement both appointees have shown back when they were mid-level consultants.
“Together with their fantastic teams, they have played critical roles in our company’s evolution to a truly integrated and digital innovation agency in this region. This transformation was a key contributor to the strong growth BCW has delivered in Asia-Pacific over the past three years,” Stafford added.
