Global brand consultancy Prophet adds three new partners in Asia

Global brand and marketing consultancy Prophet has strengthened its Asia operations with the appointment of three partners in the region; Yu Huang, FeiFei Xu and Dan Vasconcelos.

Founded in 1992 and invested in by Japanese advertising giant Dentsu in 2002, independent brand and marketing advisory Prophet has since its inception expanded through organic growth and a series of acquisitions to a headcount of 400 operating out of ten offices in the US, Europe and Asia, including regional headquarters in Hong Kong and its latest addition in Shanghai.

Yu Huang

Launched in 2017, Prophet’s Shanghai branch will now receive a fresh talent boost with the addition of experienced consulting duo, Yu Huang and FeiFei Xu to its partnership ranks. Yu Huang joins from global professional services firm Capgemini (which recently aligned its consulting and creative arms into the single entity Capgemini Invent), where he served as head of the firm’s Beijing office and Vice President and Head of its Digital Transformation Practice.

Prior to his nearly five years with Capgemini, Huang spent almost two years as an Associate partner with strategy firm Monitor Group (picked up by Deloitte in 2013 and rebranded as Deloitte Monitor), before which he served for three years as a senior associate with Booz & Company - likewise bought by Big Four rival PwC in 2013 and since rebranded to Strategy&. Huang also had a lengthy stint as a senior strategy consultant at IBM Global Services.

With an MBA from Sloan and a Masters in Electric Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Huang has over the course of his 15 years of experience in management consulting in and around the technology sector specialised in growth strategy, innovation, regional development, organisational change and cross-border investment – serving C-level executives and state-owned Chinese companies across a range of diverse sectors.

Feifei Xu

Joining Huang in Prophet’s Shanghai office is branding and strategy specialist Feifei Xu, welcomed aboard as an associate partner. Xu crosses from her previous role as an Executive Director / Strategy Director with China-originated global brand consultancy Labbrand in Shanghai, where she spent seven and a half years. Earlier, Xu served for three years with Interbrand as a senior strategist and associate consultant, after graduating with a Masters in Branding and Market Research from Tongji University.

Dan Vasconcelos

Dan Vasconcelos, meanwhile, comes on board as an associate partner in Prophet’s Hong Kong bureau, and will take on the Creative Director role for Asia Pacific. Vasconcelos has spent the past decade working in senior creative roles for a number of agencies in London, including director positions with marketing and advertising outfits Jones Knowles Ritchie and Siegel+Gale, along with earlier design stints with Electronic Arts and Disney Consumer Products. Vasconcelos also previously worked as a freelance director for Prophet’s UK office.

In a statement, the consulting firm said the new appointments come at a time when it’s experiencing growing demand for its services in the Asia region, both in terms of inbound and outbound expansions, with Prophet offering cross-sector lines in brand, digital and growth strategy, design, customer experience, insights and analytics, and digital transformations among other provisions. Previous clients include BP, Electrolux, Cathay Pacific, and T-Mobile.

“We are excited to welcome this group of well-known innovators in the space who bring a unique combination of skillsets, allowing us to continue serving the evolving needs of our clients in Asia,” Prophet’s Asia Regional Lead and Senior Partner Jay Milliken said. “As we continue to build a digitally-centered organisation that seamlessly brings together customer and business insights, data intelligence, bold creativity, and a bias toward action, they will help our clients achieve uncommon levels of growth.”