Nominees Category: PEOPLE & TEAM

2019 was a record year for Elan Shou and Ruder Finn Asia (RFA). Her firm was named 2019 Consultancy of the Year (Greater China) by the influential Holmes Report and ranked #1 by Clients for Performance and Contribution to Business Growth by R3 Worldwide. The year also saw record RFA revenues of US$39,000,000 and EBT of 12% in an environment where the communications industry was generally shrinking or, at best, flat (Holmes Report). RFA had a strong client acquisition year with competitive wins including Heineken, Marriott, Singapore Tourism Board, Uber, DBS Asia, Twitter, Dyson, Shell, Roche, Abbott, GSK, Evian, Beijing Metro, VIVO, OPPO, Skyworth, Hilton and ClubMed.

What makes a PR professional of the year? Must they come from a big market like China? Or should they preside over a whole region? We bet we know an even more difficult position for a leader to be in – growing an agency, through a merge, in a struggling/politically unstable economy, as a foreigner.

Anthony Larmon comes from a background at Edelman and FleishmanHillard and spent his whole life studying and working in public relations. His passion for emerging markets and the ethical practice of PR brought him to Myanmar six years ago to preside over the first generation of practitioners and build an industry he loves from scratch. However, 2019 was one of Myanmar’s most challenging years since it opened in 2012. To make matters complicated, he embarked on what would be the country’s first-ever merger/acquisition in the communications industry at great risk to his existing business.