Chief People Officer, APAC

Singapore or HK | Hybrid

Who we are:

Burson, part of WPP, is the global communications leader built to create value for clients through reputation. With highly specialized teams, industry-leading technologies and breakthrough creative, we help brands and businesses redefine reputation as a competitive advantage so they can lead today and into the future. When you work at Burson, you are part of a global community of lifelong learners who thrive at the edge of innovation.

More about the role:

Burson seeks an exceptional APAC Chief People Officer to shape and lead the people agenda across the region. This pivotal role exists to ensure Burson has the structure, capability, culture, and talent to deliver outstanding client outcomes and sustainable business growth. The APAC CPO will act as a trusted advisor to the APAC CEO and senior leadership team, and as a key member of the Burson Global People Team—leading the people function with oversight across recruitment, people operations, performance management, learning & development, and broader talent strategy, with market People Leads reporting into this position.

The APAC CPO will be expected to embody our values - Craft, Curiosity, Camaraderie, and Counsel - translating people strategy into execution, ensuring priorities are met, and enabling the region to operate with clarity, pace, and accountability. This is a role for a dynamic, highly commercial, and resilient people leader who is equally comfortable setting strategy at the C-suite table and rolling up their sleeves to drive execution in a fast-moving, constantly evolving environment.

This role reports directly to the Burson Global Chief People Officer.

How you'll lead:

Strategic People Leader: This role demands more than operational competence—it requires a leader who understands that every organisational design decision, talent investment, and people process is in service of one objective: enabling Burson's most critical business and client priorities across APAC. The APAC CPO will develop and own the regional people strategy in close partnership with the CEO and leadership team, ensuring it is tightly aligned to growth plans, commercial outcomes, and client needs. The standard is not merely that the people function is well-run, but that it is a genuine driver of business performance.

Trusted Advisor: Exceptional judgment, discretion, and integrity, with a demonstrated ability to build strong, trusted relationships with the APAC CEO, regional senior leaders, the Global People Team, and WPP colleagues. This leader will earn and sustain the confidence of the most senior levels of the organisation through consistent sound judgment, data-informed guidance, and impeccable follow-through on complex and sensitive people matters.

Connected Leader: Brings genuine energy to building relationships across markets, leadership teams, the Global People Team, and WPP stakeholders. Acts as a key liaison between global people strategy and local market realities, fostering a strong regional people network that operates with aligned standards, clear priorities, and collective purpose. Creates the conditions for market People Leads to thrive as a cohesive, solutions-focused community.

Capability Builder: Champions the development of skills, leadership, and performance at every level of the organisation. Drives the learning and development agenda for the region with conviction, building programs and frameworks that strengthen individual and team performance. Brings a genuine commitment to creating a culture of continuous development, constructive feedback, and performance excellence—and partners with market People Leads to make that culture tangible in every market.

Energized Change Leader: Thrives in environments of continuous transformation and rising expectations. Brings genuine energy—not mere tolerance—to change management, organisational evolution, and the relentless elevation of standards across the region. Leads with resilience and calm through change, uncertainty, and competing priorities, ensuring people implications are understood, managed, and communicated effectively.

Resilient Execution Partner: Brings a solutions-oriented mindset to complex and evolving challenges across a diverse, multi-market region, demonstrating agility, persistence, and sound judgment to navigate ambiguity, adapt plans, and mobilise resources. Maintains composure and effectiveness under pressure, operating with independence and decisiveness. Demonstrates a strong commercial mindset and the ability to advise leaders using data, insight, and sound judgment—moving seamlessly between enterprise thinking and day-to-day execution.

What you'll do:

People Strategy and C-Suite Partnership

• Develop and lead the APAC people strategy in partnership with the CEO and regional leadership team, ensuring it is closely aligned to business priorities, growth plans, and client needs
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on all people-related matters, providing clear, commercial, and metrics-based guidance
• Translate global people strategy into regional and market-level action, ensuring consistency where needed and flexibility where appropriate
• Provide leadership on organisational design, workforce planning, leadership effectiveness, succession, and capability building

Global and Regional Partnerships

• Collaborate closely with the Burson Global Chief People Officer and the wider Global People Team to ensure strategic alignment, share best practices, and collectively elevate the global Burson employee experience
• Act as a key liaison with senior WPP colleagues across the APAC region, fostering strong relationships and ensuring alignment with broader WPP people initiatives and policies where relevant
• Build productive partnerships across Burson's APAC network, connecting colleagues and resources to maximise regional and global impact

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

• Oversee regional recruitment strategy and hiring effectiveness across APAC, ensuring Burson attracts, assesses, and secures the right talent at pace
• Partner with market leads to anticipate future talent needs and build proactive workforce plans
• Use hiring and retention data to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, and recommend practical interventions

Performance, Capability, and Leadership Development

• Own and evolve the APAC performance management approach, ensuring it drives accountability, growth, and high performance
• Lead the L&D agenda for the region, building learning programs and leadership capability that strengthen performance at every level
• Partner with market People Leads to support coaching, capability uplift, and leadership development across the region
• Help build a culture of continuous development, constructive feedback, and performance excellence

People Operations and Employee Experience

• Provide oversight of APAC people operations, ensuring robust processes, policy compliance, and consistent delivery across markets
• Own and manage complex or sensitive Right to Speak (RTS) or Employee Relations (ER) cases, particularly those with regional implications, ensuring fair, compliant, and timely resolution and advising market leads on best practices
• Partner with market People Leads to maintain a high-quality employee experience while balancing local market needs and regional standards
• Use data and people metrics to inform decisions, assess risk, and improve outcomes across the employee lifecycle
• Ensure people processes are practical, scalable, and fit for a high-growth, fast-changing business

Culture, Change, and Engagement

• Champion Burson's culture and values across APAC, helping to build a connected, inclusive, and high-performance environment
• Lead with resilience and calm through change, uncertainty, and competing priorities
• Support the business through transformation, ensuring people implications are understood and effectively managed
• Strengthen manager capability to lead teams well, especially through periods of change and growth

Leadership of Market People Leads

• Provide oversight, direction, support, and accountability to market People Leads across APAC
• Create a strong regional people network with shared standards, clear priorities, and regular cadence
• Ensure local teams are aligned to the regional people strategy while remaining responsive to market context
• Set expectations, build capability, and foster a collaborative, solutions-focused people community

Experience that contributes to success:

• Significant senior HR/People leadership experience (15+ years) in a regional or multi-market environment, ideally across APAC
• Proven experience partnering with C-suite and senior business leaders in a fast-paced, matrixed, commercially driven organisation
• Strong capability across talent acquisition, performance management, leadership development, people operations, and organisational effectiveness
• Demonstrated expertise in managing complex RTS or ER cases and advising on best practices across multiple APAC jurisdictions
• Demonstrated success using people metrics and business data to shape decisions and improve outcomes
• Experience leading through change, ambiguity, and transformation across diverse markets
• A strong, pragmatic, and influential leadership style with the confidence to operate independently
• Experience in a professional services, communications, agency, media, consulting, or similarly client-led environment preferred
• Exposure to highly decentralised markets with the ability to balance regional consistency and local nuance
• Familiarity with the WPP ecosystem and working with group-level initiatives preferred
• Excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels of the organisation
• Flexibility to engage across time zones in alignment with a diverse regional footprint and global leadership priorities
• Willingness to travel across APAC markets as needed
• Fluency in English is essential; proficiency in additional languages spoken across APAC is an advantage