When I worked at TBWAWorldwide, I noticed there was no employee resource group for the Asian community, and I partnered with an incredible leader and mentor, Soon Mee Kim, to create Omnicom’s first Asian ERG, Omnicom Asian Leaders Circle. I wanted to be part of the solution for how I could help serve the AAPI community in a more proactive way.
This is when I also met my Asians in Advertising (AIA) co-founder, Bernice Chao, through a 2021 Ascend panel featuring Asian female executives sharing their career journeys. As a webinar attendee, I shared my LinkedIn profile in the chat to connect with attendees, letting them know that I’d love to meet them. Bernice added me on LinkedIn and we had a virtual one-on-one to get to know each other. After we connected, we knew we wanted to stay in touch with each other, and soon after she asked me to be her co-founder—and I said yes.
We are still amazed at how Asians in Advertising has grown so organically, with over 4,000 members across the world as a global nonprofit organization focused on community and networking, professional development opportunities and visibility to spotlight the Asian community. Some of the notable initiatives undertaken by AIA include launching our annual Breaking Barriers Conference, the Future Asian Leaders Scholarship, API Creative scholarship, NextGen Mentorship Program in partnership with 3AF, the Asians in Advertising Podcast, and speaking at SXSW about “Solving for the Asian Dilemma.”
Since we started our organization during the pandemic, we are now working on creating more in-person experiences to bring our community together in more impactful ways.
