Merlee Jayme is
one of APAC’s great creative leaders, former CCO for dentsu Asia Pacific; founder
of DM9 JaymeSyfu, the agency that won the first and only Cannes Lions Grand
Prix for the Philippines; and chairmom, founder & creative mentor of The Misfits
Camp, a training centre for neurodivergent and deaf creatives, for which she
was named 2024 Campaign Diversity and Inclusion Champion at the Campaign Asia
Women Leading Change Awards.
In December last
year, she opened a new creative agency, Jayme HQ, in the Philippines, built on
the premise that “great minds think unalike”, and that the more diverse the
thinking, the more amazing the ideas, the agency values neurodiversity and
actively seeks and develops talent from underrepresented communities.
Jayme’s work on diversity and inclusion in advertising has
positively impacted the industry. In 2021 and 2022, she was Dentsu Asia
Pacific’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lead. Shortly after, she finished her studies at the Resources for Educational
and Allied Consultancy Habitat, Inc. for courses on Autism.
In 2019 she was one of just eight women in The
Drum top 100 Chief Creative Officers. She
has been recognised with the Hall of Fame Award by the 4As Creative Guild, The
New York Festivals Creative Achievement Award, and the CEO of the Year by the
International Association of Business Communicators. She was the first to be awarded the SEA Creative
of the Year by Campaign Asia in 2013, The Asian Marketing Federation Woman
Marketer of the Year in 2019, and the Campaign Asia’s Women Leading Change
Women’s Advancement Champion for her creative work for Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion in 2022. In 2023, she was the
4As of the Philippines Lifetime Achievement Awardee.
Jayme is also the author of four books - Everyone
can be creative a handbook about nurturing your inner creativity; Chairmom,
a book on balancing mommyhood and career ambition; Create Different,
the first-ever mind book to assess an autistic
adult’s creative talent; and Ten Talks, Ten Cities, about her talks all
over the world.
Angel Guerrero, founder, president and
editor-in-chief at adobo magazine accepted the award on
Merlee’s behalf.
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