Women to Watch 2022: Ela Federigan-Chua, Optimax Communications Group

Ela Federigan-Chua

General manager
Optimax Communications Group
Philippines

Ela Federigan-Chua began her advertising career as a media assistant in 1997 and after stints at Ammirati Puris Lintas Manila and FCB Manila, she became media manager of DDB Group Philippines' media agency in 2006.

After DDB Group Philippines' independent media agency unit Touch XDA formed a spin-off group called Optimax in 2018 to enable DDB Group to handle competing accounts, the leadership of the group was handed to Federigan-Chua.

She then grew the agency’s client roster to include Philippine National Bank (PNB), Stada (Fern C), AC Motors and various government bodies, and Optimax’s 2021 revenues grew by 317% with a substantial profit margin of 26%. New business generated totalled Php145.5 million (US$3 million) in gross value. 

A leader who lets her people discover their strengths and weaknesses by letting them do things on their own, Federigan-Chua contributes episodes to DDB Group's internally produced podcast where she shares advice on aspects of account management and building good client relationships.

She is a member of DDB Group Philippines' gender-equal board and executive committee whose members are known advocates of  gender diversity, equality and inclusion. As a member of the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and the United Print Media Group, Federigan-Chua also makes sure that she supports industry policies and regulation that will foster growth of the media and advertising industry.

Outside of work, she is a lecturer for the strategic business economics programme of the University of Asia and the Pacific, where she has been giving talks about consumer insights and the media landscape. As a mom of two teenage kids, she heads their school's apostolic programme for students called ‘Kids For Jesus’.