Women to Watch Greater China 2021: Carbo Yu, Sinclair

Carbo Yu

Regional director
Sinclair
Hong Kong

It was back at high school, working with St. John’s Ambulance Brigade on a communications campaign, where Carbo Yu first experienced the power of public relations. The positive community impact of this work had a profound effect, leading her to pursue a degree in communications. 

That early inspiration has taken Yu a long way, from her career beginnings at boutique agencies, where her interest in both client strategy and agency business were nurtured, to reaching senior management within just 10 years. Now, aged 32, Yu is regional director for Sinclair. Based in Hong Kong, she drives the agency’s growth initiative and leads a team of 50 across four offices. 

Since Joining Sinclair in 2017, Yu has transformed the agency’s business operations by implementing capacity planning and robust processes to streamline operations. Reflecting this invaluable contribution, she was promoted to regional director in 2020.

In the second half of 2020 alone, with the backdrop of Covid-19 and economic instability, Yu led 22 new client wins regionally, generating net new revenue of US$400,000 and diversifying the client revenue base across multiple new industry verticals. Her leadership has resulted in 11 award-winning campaigns over the last three years. 

Not only adept at driving results and award winning campaigns, Yu is equally skilled at creating a positive agency culture. Her human approach to talent management encourages and empowers team members, which has led to notable optimisation in team performance. She’s achieved 80% talent retention over the last three years.

A strong supporter of “work for good”, Yu understands the significance pro-bono and charity work has to team members for the cause and in the wider community. This passion has led Yu and her team to work with many companies and not-for-profit organisations on direct integrated communications to advocate for mental health, sports empowerment, family wellbeing and environmental sustainability.

Equally passionate about nurturing local industry talent, Yu also serves on the board of PRHK, championing agency talent and promoting best practices across the industry. She also acts as a mentor in Prospect’s Global Mentorship Scheme.