Business View Oceania | September 2022

5 6 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 Y ouGov has appointed Laura Robbie as their new Asia-Pacific CEO. Miss Robbie previously held the role of Managing Director, Australia and will celebrate her three- year anniversary at YouGov in October this year. Originally from Scotland, Miss Robbie moved to Australia in 2008, prior to which she worked in international market research companies in Europe and the US. Since moving to Sydney, she has also worked to extensively across India and the Asia Pacific, including China and Japan. “One of the key areas I will focus on in this role is to build on the strong foundations we have in place to grow a regional team that transcends our geographical borders. We have so much talent in the region and the ability to AWORLD OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES: MARKET RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYTICS COMPANY YOUGOV IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE APPOINTMENT OF LAURA ROBBIE AS CEO OF THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION O p e n i n g L i n e s service clients globally and regionally, whilst maintaining the best what makes each market unique.” “I think empowering our people to showcase their skills will drive momentum to power our ambitious growth plans and to increase our brand awareness of YouGov in Asia Pac,” she said. Despite having built a career in data, Miss Robbie is a linguist and a storyteller but not a researcher. “I have a very clever team who know research inside out, so there are certain things I leave to the true experts,” she laughs, “and like me, they are intrinsically motivated, which is something I really rely on.” But her self-effacing honesty belies a much deeper motive. “Working in data analytics and research is all about people. I am intensely interested in people, in understanding people and in bringing the human aspect to business.” “I believe that we can only do our best work when we can confidently bring our whole selves to our work. We all wear so many hats and our lives are challenged by so many external factors. Ultimately, our work is about people – our team, our panellists, our clients. If we look after our people, we prioritise and we focus well, the success will follow.” Miss Robbie credits much of her career success thus far to having people who helped push her out of her comfort zone. Equally, Miss Robbie hopes to inspire and motivate others to do the same. “I want to be able to create an environment where everyone feels safe to showcase their talents – even the ones that they don’t know that they have yet,” she said. “Throughout my career I have been given lots of opportunities and people have constantly pushed me beyond my boundaries. I’ve been asked to take on more roles, bigger roles, larger teams, teams encompassing areas I knew virtually nothing about,” she said. “I used to say I am intensely interested in people, in understanding people and in bringing the human aspect to business