
Barbara Young
Vice President for Corporate and Commercial Strategy Practices
Former APAC CEO with a track record of scaling brands and unlocking commercial growth across global markets.
ACUMEN WINS
Overall, in charge of understanding the client needs and pain points, developing a fit for purpose Project Designs to answer the critical business related questions, putting together the Project Team members with the skills and experienced required, Quality Output for all Commercial and Corporate Strategy consulting projects (2014, 2019 - Current) - JCB Philippines, Tanduay Distillery Inc., BPI BanKo Microlending, Eastwest Bank, DITO Telecommunity, Bounty Fresh Group, Cebu Pacific, Ayala Health, Peak Fuel, University of Cebu, UC Medical Hospital, Pigeon Baby Care Philippines
Strategic Brand Positioning and Communication Strategy - Consulted for Philippine Tanduay Brand Relaunch for its customer value proposition development, which drove it to become the biggest rhum in the world in 2017 – “Tibay ng loob. Tibay Tanduay” campaign with Derek Ramsey endorser. (2014/2015)
Brand Strategy Development – Consulted for iPeople Inc. (Ayala Corp and Yuchengco’s House of Investments), APEC Schools, University of Nueva Caceres and National Teachers College, to define the Brand Strategies for Growth (2020 - 2022) as well as Concept Foods, Inc. (2022)
Training/Building Organization Capability - Conducted “How to Conduct Deep and Thorough Business Analysis”, “How to Generate Customer/Consumer Insights”, “Planning for In-Market Execution” for companies like Globe, BPI and iPeople (2019 – 2022)
EXPERIENCE
- Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble ASEAN, Australia, India
- Category Director, Diageo Asia Pacific
- Marketing General Manager, Chevron Asia Pacific
- Chief Executive Officer, Cohen's Lifestyle Centre Philippines
INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods), Healthcare, Education, Energy, Gas, Oils, & Petrochemicals, Banking & Financial Services, Telecommunications, Food and Beverage
CORE SKILLS
- Strategic Planning
- Brand and Portfolio Growth
- Leadership Alignment
WHAT SHE BRINGS
Barbara brings over 30 years of executive leadership, guiding multinational teams across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. She’s led market turnarounds, portfolio repositions, and regional growth strategies for some of the world’s most iconic brands.
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our work
We help businesses scale with clarity, understand customers, empower teams, and build future-ready leaders.
Unlock Growth
Acumen enables companies to win in the market by sharpening their value propositions, how to enter or expand in the market, and rethinking their customer experiences – unlocking step-change, sustainable revenue growth.
Sharpen Strategy
Acumen creates clarity, confidence, and alignment among leadership teams — enabling them to define a clear ambition, make focused choices on where to play and how to win, and translate strategy into executable initiatives that deliver long-term growth.
Organizational Alignment
We help leaders of family businesses and complex organizations create a winning people strategy, build governance structures, plan for succession, shift mindsets, sync culture, and rally leaders so that the organization can deliver the company’s business ambitions, and transform its most important asset – its people.
Build Capability
From learning to performing — Acumen’s bespoke training programs help teams apply commercial skills tailored to the needs of the business and grounded in real-world application.

