Ong left Grey last year in the hands of newly-appointed president Gi Gatchalian to take up further studies in the US.
While her study stint in the US was an exciting phase in her life, it was also marked by sad events. While she was away, Grey suffered the loss of two of its key people, ECD Butch Uy and vice-president for media, Rina Bartolome, who both passed away in September last year.
Now back in Manila, Ong, who helped found Campaigns (before the agency was acquired by Grey) and its satellite companies - Campaigns Direct & Design and CAPRI - has taken control of the creative department as ECD, while the agency selects the next creative to take her place.
"I am in this ECD post as a halfway house. A lot of creative directors are ECDs in the making, Ong said.
"My challenge to all creatives is to lead themselves towards the best that they can be. It's a personal philosophy that belies the 'personality' culture of most creative departments. As ECD, I am willing to coach, mentor and even inspire - but the drive and the passion to win awards must come from deep within each creative soul."
Grey is a lean organisation but its creative team is the largest department with 39 per cent out of the total staff of 94.
Ong's background has prepared her for the mentor role. She was creative consultant for FCB Hong Kong, and for 10 years worked in various capacities in the creative department of J. Walter Thompson.
She rose to the position of vice-president for creative at JWT in the Philippines before joining JWT Hong Kong as associate creative director.
She was also the first Filipino to judge at the Clio Awards in 1994, and was founding president of the Creative Guild of the Philippines.
Ong recalls that she started out in advertising "by accident".
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, but with martial law in force in the Philippines at that time, she felt that the climate was not right for her to persue journalism.
She added: "I went into advertising. I was a junior copywriter at PAC which was the number one ad agency in the 70s. But I really am JWT-grown."
