After two plus years with The Hoffman Agency, as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed AE, I found myself sitting across from Lou at a classic American diner early in the morning. Eating waffles and talking PR. Lou’s surprise proposal? To take part in Hoffman’s Building Bridges program. Leave for Hong Kong [...]
Above Photo: Hoffman and Emerald Comms in Malacca for an off-site meeting in 2007. Top L-R: Jana Ponnudurai, Neethiya Sadagopal, Lee Ling, Mayda Jutahkiti, Janice Wang Bottom L-R: Rene Leow, Tay Kuan Yan (ex GM of HA), Jisun Kim, Maureen Tseng Our link with The Hoffman Agency started in 2004. It [...]
I didn’t know it at the time, but the Hyundai Electronics press tour in 1994 saw the start of two special relationships in Asia. You’ve already heard from Young Sohn, founder of InComm and our partner in Korea for the early years. The second person was Olive Ting, whose firm Era [...]
Photo Caption: My relationship with Zhong evolved into a friendship. This photo shows her with my kids (Diego and Pilar) in their younger days during a day trip to San Francisco. I had the good fortune of calling The Hoffman Agency my employer for more than 16 years, beginning my journey [...]
Kaori Saito launched our operation in Japan. As you’ll hear from her, she didn’t want the job. I remember a breakfast meeting at Hobee’s and her challenging me with “Why do you even think I can do this job?” But she was the right person for the job. She was a [...]
Ray Schuster started our Asia Pacific operation in Singapore. It wasn’t easy. We didn’t have an international expansion department. No, I take that back. Ray was our international expansion department. He navigated the government regulations. He found our office space and oversaw the buildout as well as played interior designer down to [...]
Some celebrities achieve one-name status. Adele. Ronaldo. Kobe. As the Agency’s first staff member hired in Asia Pacific, Maureen Tseng has achieved one-syllable status … “Mo.” Out of all the decisions Ray Schuster, who launched our AP operation, made over his stint in Singapore, I think he’d agree the hiring of [...]
The Agency opened its doors in Asia on Oct. 20, 1996. It has been an amazing, fun, torturous, weird, satisfying, frustrating and enlightening run. This blog celebrates the looming 20-year milestone, lending a voice to all the people who contributed to our success in the region. I made my first trip to [...]
