Apple has appointed Eva Yao as marketing communications director for Greater China, effective May 2026, based in Shanghai.
In her new role, she will lead Apple's consumer-facing marketing across all media and platforms, working within the Greater China market reporting structure that sits under VP and managing director Isabel Ge Mahe.
She brings more than 25 years of experience across healthcare, beauty and consumer goods. Her expertise spans brand management, innovation, digital, operations and business excellence across local, regional and global business units.
Yao joins from Bayer, where she spent more than nine years in successive senior roles across China and APAC. She was most recently VP and head of global mega brands for APAC from 2024 to 2026. Prior to the role, she spent two years as VP and head of business excellence and digital lead for APAC.
Before that, Yao was VP and head of marketing and innovation for China from 2018 to 2022, and head of the Coppertone China business unit from 2017 to 2019.
Before joining Bayer, Yao spent 14 years at L'Oréal across China and the US, beginning as a global marketing manager based in Shanghai from 2002 to 2005 before taking on marketing and commercial roles in L'Oréal's US Professional Products Division.
She was named AVP of US marketing from 2010 to 2013, and then spent three years AVP of key accounts before finishing her tenure in New York as AVP of learning and transformation in 2016.
Greater China is Apple's biggest market outside the US, accounting for close to 20% of the tech giant's total sales.
In April, Apple named head of hardware engineering John Ternus as its new chief executive to replace Tim Cook, who will step down after 15 years of leading the technology giant. Ternus will take over on September 1 and Cook will become executive chairman.
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
