My time at The Hoffman Agency was regretfully short-lived, but so full — impactFUL and meaningFUL, that is. It represented a turning point in my career — from meeting the most amazing people and picking up important lessons in leadership, to learning the true art of storytelling. I joined the Singapore [...]
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 [...]
This stretch of Tanjong Pagar Road “showcases” our first office in Singapore. It turns out the very same shot appears in Wikipedia. Talk about a startup. In 1996 Hoffman Asia Pacific was a classic — roots spreading from San Jose to Singapore in one fell swoop, without proven leadership (me), little-to-no [...]
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 [...]
Malaysian girl in Silicon Valley. Who would have thought? Sixteen years ago, I made my way to San Jose. It was 1999, my 10th month into a great job at Intel, and I was loving every bit of it. Little did I know that things were about to change drastically and [...]
We first connected with David Frost, founder of Australian PR agency PR Deadlines, back in 2001 for an assignment involving Juniper Networks. The fit worked. We’ve been teaming with PR Deadlines ever since. David’s son Luke is now a big part of PR Deadlines. Even at an early age, Luke proved calm [...]
I met Julian in 1993 when he was working in Silicon Valley for Cunningham (later sold to Citigate). Between his smarts, professorial air and British accent — still slays American audiences; just check out the ratings for Downton Abbey — I hoped to never encounter him in a new-business pitch. As [...]
When The China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) building in Beijing flung open its doors in 1985, its 29 floors qualified it as the tallest building in town. Even 15 years later when we entered China, the address still carried prestige though it had long ago lost its title as [...]
We took Lou Hoffman’s word for it 20 years ago when he decided there was opportunity in Asia Pacific for a relatively small, independent, San Jose, California-based public relations consulting firm. Few of us working in the agency at the time had ever been to the region, let alone knew anything [...]
Have you ever felt that some things in life were meant to happen exactly the way they had and that even if you had the power to change the past, you wouldn’t have done it any other way? I’ll bet that many would feel this way about a past love, a [...]
