Women to Watch Greater China 2023: Lara Jefferies, Plug

Lara Jefferies

Managing director
Plug
Hong Kong 

Lara Jefferies started her own PR agency, Plug, at the young age of 24 and with just three years of experience under her belt, she had PR-ed everything from Tampax to turkeys.

Her positive outlook, an astute business sense and executional excellence, are the attributes that have only gone up in the last 15 years. Plug today services multinational and local clients across consumer, fashion, beauty, corporate, tech, property, healthcare industries: TUMI, Nespresso, The North Face, Impossible Foods, Aesop, Fenty Beauty, Google, and Stryker to name a few. 

Jefferies is incredibly entrepreneurial not only for her clients, but also in business. She had the foresight to expand Plug’s services to technology and corporate clients, putting together a stellar team and winning accounts like Google, Baptist University Business School, Smartone, Colliers Property, Bank of China and Aqumon, amongst others. This practice now contributes close to 50% of Plug’s turnover and provides the agency with a stable business platform that hedges against the headwinds that certain industries experience. 

She has led Plug profitably in all, but the first two years of operation and net profit margins stood at double digits, even through the pandemic. Jefferies has a keen sense of understanding on what is required to take overseas brands into APAC. Her ability to guide businesses on their Hong Kong or Greater China entry and deliver strategic plans for growth has made her a favourite amongst international brands eyeing these markets.

Always the one to lead from the front, she tends to take responsibility when something doesn’t go as planned and takes a back seat to let the team soak in the limelight when things go well. That feeling that she is in the trenches with her team is the reason they work so seamlessly as a practice. Clients, too, are inspired by the sense of camaraderie and open dialogue Jefferies and her team bring to the table.

In 2022, she introduced a mentoring program to help team members fine-tune their PR skills while discovering and leveraging their natural talents. She is also working on building ‘Plug Uni’ which will be an online upskilling resource for staff to expand their knowledge in the field of public relations.