Sony Music names new comms VP for Asia and Middle East

Sony Music Entertainment has appointed Prerna Suri as its VP for comms in Asia and the Middle East. Suri (pictured) will be reporting to Sony Music's president for corporate strategy in Asia and the Middle East; who is based out of New York. She will also be collaborating closely with colleagues in London and the US. She has been in Asia for the last 14 years and was raised and worked in Dubai, giving Suri a unique perspective of both regions.

Suri was most recently with Cisco as head of communications Southeast Asia. She first joined the company in 2020 as communications manager, according to her LinkedIn, and she was previously with Facebook as communication manager for South and Central Asia at Facebook.

During her time in Facebook, Suri led complex communications strategy for the company across business units on proactive and reactive communications in the region, her LinkedIn said. She also led crisis communications across the region, managed agencies, and maintained strong media relationships; and regularly provided strong communications counsel to regional and in-country leaders, including high-level advice on sensitive issues such as misinformation, safety, hate speech, cybersecurity, and privacy.

Some of Suri's achievements during her time at Facebook include crafting strong narratives and comms strategies to counter negative press cycles, implementing strong and creative comms moments, and working with senior business leaders during various crises, her LinkedIn added.

Suri also has experience in the journalism space, having been editor for international news at Channel News Asia, where she managed correspondents, writers, editors, producers, and production assistants based in Europe, the US, South Asia, and MENA on a wide range of projects and content spanning TV and digital, as stated on her LinkedIn. Some of her other duties included collaborating with stakeholders on key editorial, communications, and production decisions, as well as reporting and producing global and regional news stories. Suri has also worked at Inspired Productions, United Nations OCHA, Al Jazeera Media Network, NDTV, Dubai World, Khaleej Times, and Klareco Communications - formerly Bell Pottinger.

In November last year, Suri spoke with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on how the internal communications function has become much more strategic and important during the pandemic, more than ever before, due to people’s innate need to connect. Suri, then head of communications at Cisco, also talked about how the company placed emphasis on connecting with its own staff with initiatives such as sending care packages, having virtual catch-up sessions to increase camaraderie, and holding a five-day event for its managers to build their skills together.

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