Women Leading Change Awards 2025: Winners revealed

Campaign Asia-Pacific has announced the winners of its ninth Women Leading Change Awards. following the release of its shortlist late last month. 

Jury members awarded 37 recognitions across 24 different categories (see full list below), including 18 winners, 11 metal recipients of gold, silver or bronze awards, along with 8 commendations. The awards honour the extraordinary women shaping the future of the marketing communications industry and the organisations that support them.

The esteemed titular 'Women Leading Change of the Year' award was won by Merlee Jayme, chairmom and founder of The Misfits Camp based in the Philippines, the first facility in the world to assess and train neurodivergent and deaf creative adults and bridge them to the creative industry.  Not only did Jayme create new assessments and tools for divergent creatives, but actual jobs and industry placements for them. Not surprisingly, Jayme also won the 'Diversity & Inclusion Champion' award.

Women Leading Change of the Year Award winner Merlee Jayme

Sandy Wu of Publicis Groupe China was also commended for 'Women Leading Change of the Year' for her strong work in transforming Publicis Communications Shanghai from a creative network to a full-fledged integrated marketing partner for clients. 

CEO of the Year was won by Sue-Anne Lim of UM Malaysia. Not only did the jury appreciate her successes in driving business wins and creating efficiencies, but also for her clear and direct execution of new tools and processes in response to challenges as well as efforts to bring in new programmes and raise employee morale.

Valerie Madon of McCann Worldgroup took the Creative Captain award. The jury was impressed how her genuine advocacy for diversity and women's empowerment was underscored in the strong campaigns she led championing financial inclusion, and further by her dedication to nurturing the next generation of women in creative leadership roles. 

L to R: Sue-Anne Lim, Sandy Wu, Valerie Madon

Mastercard's Connie Cheng won two awards for Fintech Woman Leader and Innovator of the Year. Luxury pet brand Vetreska saw Nico Li win for Entrepreneurship of the Year, while Wen Wang won the Young Business Leader award. Likewise, DDB placed two women winners, with DDB Mudra's Shikha Davessar being crowned Emerging Leader and DDB Group Philippines' Anna Chua-Norbert winning as Vision Leader. 

Other notable winners included Nu Skin's Pakapun (Vicky) Leevutinun for Business Leader; Publicis Groupe's Bhavna Shewakramani for Digital Transformational Leader; FairPrice Group's Jean Khong for Game Changer of the Year; Havas Group's Janet Zhang for HR Management Champion; GroupM's Neelima Agsibagil for Mentor of the Year; Mindshare's Allison Zhang for Rising Star and Fatima Fertilizer's Rabel Sadozai for Sustainability Leader.

Courtesy of Coty Operations Asia-Pacific

In the company category, cosmetics firm Coty Operations Asia-Pacific in Singapore won Gold as Best Company for Women. Coty introduced a women's mentorship programme and a new parental leave scheme that combined with existing flexible work arrangements and development opportunities to deliver measurable progress in female promotions and retentions. Beyond this, Coty's Impact initiatives promoted women's education and skills training, while marketing campaigns took on women's beauty stereotypes.

GroupM Australia not only took the Silver award in this prime category, but also won two more Golds for Best Innovative and Sustainable Workplace and for Diverse-Inclusive Workplace of the Year. The other Gold was won by Diageo in Singapore for Best Employee Engagement.

The lone winner in the campaign category was a Silver awarded to Leverate Group in Indonesia for Best CSR Programme. 

FULL WINNERS LIST