Up the ranks: Meiyea Neo joins Zendesk as HR Director for APAC

Zendesk welcomes Meiyea Neo as its HR Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, bringing with her over 15 years of experience in technology and consulting.

Neo is tasked with evolving the employee experience at Zendesk’s eight offices across the rapidly growing region, located in Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Manila, Bangkok, Bangalore, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Her work will impact over 650 people employed across product and engineering, sales and marketing, as well as finance and operations. She will also champion the brand’s commitment to build a culture that embraces diverse and innovative mindsets, and where people feel supported and a sense of belonging.

At Zendesk, which provides support ticketing system and customer service software, her main priorities are to establish regional policies and practices that align with the global business goals to enable the company to continue its rapid growth across Asia Pacific.

This includes enhancing candidate and employee experience; elevating leadership and organisation capabilities; investing in HR automation, and data insights to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

“Meiyea joins the team at an exciting time in our growth. Her wealth of regional experience across both consulting roles and with other leading technology companies will help take our employee initiatives, talent acquisition and development, and leadership programmes to the next level. Her role is crucial to helping our people have the right tools and support required to be the best they can be,” said Sandie Overtveld, VP APAC, Zendesk.

Neo reports to the Vice President of Global HR Business Partnering, based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Zendesk, Neo developed her expertise in HR through various regional positions held at technology, IT and consulting companies such as Autodesk, Lenovo, Agfa-Gevaert N.V. and Mercer. Most recently, she was the Head of HR ASEAN for Orange Business Services.

When asked her thoughts on talent in the region, Neo spoke exclusively to Human Resources Online: “Attracting talent with the right skills and hiring are key concerns for businesses today, especially in the tech industry, and even more so in APAC. This is a dynamic market with a high mobility of talent, which makes it an exciting place to be. It’s also really important for us as HR professionals to define and create a unique experience that gives meaning and purpose to current and potential employees.”

Neo is passionate about being a facilitator of change and connecting people together as the internal environment and interactions grows increasingly complex. She believes that HR plays a critical role in every organisation's evolution to stay relevant and when done well, will make a difference in providing a ‘voice’ to engage and win both hearts and minds of their leaders and employees.

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