As the great soul singer Tina Turner once sang, You’re Simply the Best, she was probably singing about Jay Laygan, who is indeed the best!

Meet Jay Laygan, based in our Manila, Philippines office. Jay is part of our Analyst Category Management team, focused on our Spanish speaking markets. Jay enjoys the fact that her role is a continuous learning process, because the team gets to encounter different scenarios every day at work, given the nature of her role.

“Learning every day is what motivates me the most,” shares Jay. Moving forward, Jay wants to work to become a leader so that she can help develop and mentor a team.

Other than work, family means everything to Jay. One of her goals in life was to be able to provide financially for everyone in her family. This includes mentoring and providing for her brother, as she does not want him to go through the same hardship she encountered. More than family, Jay also places importance on her identity as a transgender. In her life, Jay has encountered discrimination and a lack of respect as an individual.

Joining BHP has been a life changing experience for Jay. Jay has been able to support her family financially, and provide for her brother. Since joining BHP, she is also a little closer to her dream of travelling around Asia, next year.

Jay feels welcomed at BHP and recently became a part of Jasper, an LGBT+ group. Jasper is a BHP employee inclusion group formed to strengthen the Company’s culture through inclusion and diversity. Named after the mineral rock jasper known for its multi-coloured patters the groups’ aim is to support a safe, inclusive workplace for everyone irrespective of their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex variability. With this, Jay was one of the representatives of BHP at the Philippine Financial and Inter-Industry Pride Gala Night. “I really felt supported by the company and realised my value being the first transgender employee of BHP Manila,” Jay added.

“The culture in BHP is really good. As a transgender who experienced a lot of discrimination before, I never encountered any in BHP. The company knows how to take care of its employees; it makes me feel like I will not find another company like BHP.”

Ending off, Tina Turner was right, Jay is better than anyone we have ever met!