MANILA, PHILIPPINES – GREYnJ United’s Chief Creative Officer, Jureeporn Thaidumrong and Dentsu Jayme Syfu’s Chairmom and Chief Creative Officer, Merlee Jayme were named in the world’s most award-winning chief creative officers, reported The Drum.
This came from the global rankings of the Chief Creative Officers by The Big Won, which found that only eight of the 100 most award-winning chief creative officers in 2018 were female.
In almost 30 years of career journey, Thaidumrong has become one of the most influential figures to shape Thai advertising. Under her leadership, Results/O&M won Thailand’s first-ever Cannes Gold Lion in 2000, and Saatchi & Saatchi won Thailand’s first-ever D&AD Pencil in 2003.
In 2005, Thaidumrong opened her own shop, JEH United, which later merged with Nude Communication as NudeJEH. In 2015, NudeJEH joined WPP Network under Grey Group as GREYnJ UNITED where Thaidumrong leads as the Chairwoman/CCO.
Jayme is the first Filipino to be awarded The Creative of the Year for Southeast Asia in the Campaign Asia Pacific Agency of the Year Awards. A business-minded and award-winning creative, she has been recognized with the CEO of the Year 2016 by the IABC Philippines and the St. Hildegard Most Influential Woman in Communications 2017.
Under her leadership, Dentsu Jayme Syfu has been named the 2016 Creative Agency of the Year for the Philippines by Campaign Asia and the inaugural SPIKES ASIA Country Agency of the Year 2017 for the Philippines. She is also a mom to four beautiful girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men’s world.
Joining Thaidumrong and Jayme in the rankings are Joyce King Thomas of McCann XBC, Debbi Vandeven of VMLY&R, Monica Moro of McCann Spain, Swati Bhattacharya of FCB Ulka, Liz Taylor of FCB Chicago, and Teresa Herd, formerly Intel.
Although females in the creative industry have been visible in the past years, the lack of female representation in senior roles still persists, evidenced by initiatives that aim to address it–programs such as the See it, Be it funded by Cannes Lions, The Three Percent, and Where are the Boss Ladies?
See It Be It is an initiative developed and funded by Cannes Lions working towards equal representation of female and male creative directors across the industry. The program supports the next generation of female creative directors. It accelerates their careers by providing inspiration and mentorship.
The Three Percent originated from the 3% female population of all the Creative Directors in US. In a world where women influence upwards of 80% of consumer spending and 60% of social media sharing, this is business suicide. Through a mix of content, community and professional development, we’ve helped raise the number of female CDs to 11% while giving agencies a clear road map of ways to champion female creative talent and leadership. The movement includes a 2-day annual fall conference, one-day MiniCons in cities around the world, a Certification Program, agency consulting programs, a vibrant online community, a live Super Bowl Tweetup, a student scholarship fund, a business blog and more.
Where are the Boss Ladies is a crowd-sourced list of ad agencies with women in charge, aiming to provide a resource for people to find their next female boss or business partner.
