Tony Tao started his career in public relations at Edelman in 1999, and is now Managing Director, Health Sector for Edelman APAC. In this role, Tony leads healthcare communication professional across more than 10 markets in APAC to support client in pharmaceutical and medical device industries on corporate reputation, policy and public affairs, disease education and issue & crisis management. He has extensive experience in healthcare communications, corporate reputation, employee engagement and issue and crisis management, serving clients such as Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Amgen, Novartis, Starbucks, Mars, among others.
Prior to his current position, Tony led Public Affairs and Advisory in China as well as Reputation business in Edelman Singapore. Before that, he also led the firm’s Shanghai and Guangzhou office as managing director. Tony provided counsel to Johnson & Johnson on the company’s corporate equity program and managed to create the first unified corporate equity and CSR platform for Johnson & Johnson in China, the Johnson & Johnson Family Health Initiative, to engage stakeholder both internally and externally. Tony has also advised Starbucks in China for over 7 years from its corporate communication to community engagement strategy, from social media strategy to developing partner engagement strategy. Starbucks is widely recognized as one of the most admired brands in China as well as a respected employer.
Before starting his career in PR, Tony worked with the Marks and Spencer Shanghai Representative Office where he was responsible for market research and merchandise management. His position at Marks and Spencer also took him to Hong Kong, where he lived and worked for one year.
Tony received an MBA degree with honors at CEIBS in 2004. He also participated in an exchange program with Indiana University during his study. Tony graduated from Donghua University in Shanghai with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. He is fluent in English, Cantonese, Shanghainese and Mandarin.