2018 Jury

Lance Martin
Partner/Executive Creative Director
Union

Lance Martin is proud to have survived more than two decades in the advertising industry.

During his 12 years at TAXI, he was integral in creating some of the most recognized and awarded work produced by the agency, for brands such as VIAGRA, Nike, and the Worldwide Short Film Festival. As Executive Creative Director of TAXI 2, Martin led the development of memorable campaigns for Koodo, Burger King, and MiO. He was also a key player in bringing the iconic MINI brand roaring back to life.

He is now Chief Creative Officer and Partner at UNION, where he spearheads breakthrough work for clients including Best Buy, Weston Bakeries, and INFINITI. He has won numerous Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, and Clio Awards.

Martin has been a judge at Cannes, The One Show, The Art Directors Club of New York, and the Canadian Marketing Awards. He was also the former chair of the Advertising & Design Club of Canada Awards.
He is very excited to chair the Marketing Awards and see all the great work that has come out of Canada this year.

Mia Pearson
CEO, MSL Canada and Co-Founder North Strategic and Notch Video
MSLGROUP

A combination of entrepreneurial spirit and timing led Mia Pearson to co-found North Strategic, a communications agency built on the belief that social needs to be integrated into everything you do. Two years later she co-founded Notch Video, Canada's first online video marketplace. After growing the combined companies to more than 70 people across Canada, Mia and her co-founder Justin Creally sold North Strategic and Notch Video to MSL Group. As CEO, Mia oversees the Canadian region.

Ms. Pearson is known as an innovator, a creative strategist, and a pioneer at fusing digital integration with traditional PR. Her focus on pushing the boundaries of conventional public relations and embracing new ideas and original thinking keeps her at the forefront of the industry.

Ms. Pearson has partnered with clients such as Samsung, Rogers, Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, PepsiCo, airbnb, American Express and Facebook on some of their most complex issues and creative opportunities.

Ms. Pearson is known for building high-performance teams, creating award-winning best-place-to-work environments, and turning around companies.A serial entrepreneur, Ms. Pearson also co-founded High Road Communications in 1996, growing the company to over 130 people across Canada and in San Francisco.

Recognized as one of the 2015 Top Marketers in Canada by Marketing Magazine and Strategy Magazine’s 2014 and 2016 Agency of the Year, North continues to expand with more than 80 employees across offices in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary.

Mia was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by RBC’s prestigious Women of Influence Awards. She was also inducted into Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame by WXN in 2015.

Ms. Pearson is a regular speaker at industry events on the importance of personal branding and she is passionate about advancing the careers of women in business.

Etienne Bessette
Head of Creative
FCB Montreal

Over his 20-plus year career as an Art Director and Creative Director he has worked for many highly respected agencies, including Sid Lee, BBDO, Havas and Taxi.
He is now the Head of Creative at FCB Montreal.

We has adorned his trophy room with a Cannes Lion and over 150 National and International awards.

He is known for insightful creative work and his collaborative nature.
Clients have said to see him more as a business partner than an idea pusher.

He has worked on virtually every type of business and service out there from Budweiser,
Air Canada, Fido, Audi as well as Milk and Volkswagen, to name just a few.

Dhaval Bhatt
Creative Director
Formerly No Fixed Address

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Dhaval has spent the last 13 years working in Toronto as an award-winning Copywriter and Creative Director.

During this time, he’s helped some of Canada's top agencies land prized accounts, turned around brands with double-digit growth and created campaign platforms built from the ground up. Most recently, he tackled the challenge of heading the creative at Canada's fastest growing agency startup, No Fixed Address.

A firm believer in the power of creativity to solve business problems, Dhaval has always been a slave to the idea, not the medium. This belief has led to award-winning and result driven work that’s been featured in The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Ted Conference, Mashable, Fast Company and The Huffington Post, just to name a few.

Greg Bolton
Creative Director
Formerly Jam3

Greg is a seasoned integrated marketer, communicator and creative leader with deep expertise in problem solving and bringing big ideas to life. He's worked in a wide variety of marketing and communications disciplines, including original content start-ups, digital design and production, and traditional advertising.

Greg has held creative leadership roles for both Canadian and global clients at Organic, Teehan+Lax, Juniper Park, Leo Burnett, and Edelman. Clients have included Nike, Quaker, Levis, Jeep, Dodge, Molson, Sprint, John Hancock, Telus, Procter and Gamble, and many others.

He most recently served as Creative Director for Jam3, recognized as one of the world's finest digital production and design studios, and is a member of the FWA Hall of Fame.

His work has been recognized at the Cannes Lions, Marketing Awards, SXSW, the London International Awards, One Show Interactive, W3 and many others. He's also had his writing published in the Globe and Mail, cbc.ca, MSN/Sympatico and other publications.

Alexis Bronstorph
Executive Creative Director
TAXI

Alexis started her career in advertising at 9 years old, when she did voiceover work for a radio commercial. She then took a brief hiatus to become an adult, and over the last 13 years, has been working as a Creative Director and copywriter across all disciplines, from broadcast, to digital, to social, and experiential. Her work has won Clios, One Show pencils, she’s been shortlisted at Cannes, featured on the cover of Archive magazine, and has won numerous Marketing, Cassies, and ADCC awards. Throughout her career, Alexis’ strategic and collaborative approach has helped build and grow brands from the small and local to the big and national. Some of her favourites include: H&R Block, Heineken, Axe, Kraft Canada, PC financial, Tim Hortons, TJX, WWF, and most recently, Rethink Breast Cancer.  

Karen Howe
Creative Director & President
The Township

Karen Howe is a globally-awarded creative director, writer and speaker. She decodes trends in creativity, technology and culture to audiences across North America. Karen is also a frequent advertising commentator for Strategy, CTV, TVO, CBC and The Globe and Mail.

As one of the very few female creative directors in the world, Karen is a vocal champion for more women in management roles.

Peter Ignazi
Global Chief Creative Officer
Cossette Communication Inc.

Peter is one of the most successful creative directors and copywriters in Canada. Under his leadership, Cossette was named Canadian "Agency of the Year" by Strategy Magazine in 2016 and 2017. He brought the same honour to BBDO in 2011. In both cases, firsts for the agencies. In 2017, he was ranked #6 in the world on MarComm’s “Magnificence List” of advertising creatives. As a copywriter, he was twice included in the Top Ten list globally by The Gunn Report.

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Peter earned a B.Sc. in Chemistry from McMaster University before enjoying a successful career as a research chemist with Dow Chemical in Germany. He also has an MBA from McGill University. Peter has worked as a Copywriter and Creative Director in Toronto and New York for such agencies as TAXI, McCann, and Downtown Partners DDB.

In 2015, Peter brought his skills to Cossette where he runs a variety of blue chip accounts, including McDonalds, General Mills and SickKids.

Marketa Krivy
Executive Creative Director
Tribal Worldwide

Marketa began her multi–disciplinary career with award–winning work for Greenpeace, when she was an intern at J. Walter Thompson.

From there, she went on to work with many brands including Volkswagen, Ikea, Unilever, Labatt, Panasonic, President's Choice, and McDonald’s, and continued to be recognized along the way.

Marketa has won at Cannes, One Show, Clios, ADCC, Marketing Awards, and Cassies. Her work has also appeared in Communication Arts, Lürzer's Archive, Graphis, Applied Arts, Adweek, and Ad Age. She also has the distinction of creating one of ICA's top 10 ads of all time.

As the ECD at Tribal Worldwide in Toronto, Marketa oversees a cross–disciplinary, integrated team with a mission to create meaningful brand experiences through innovation and creativity.

Prior to joining Tribal, she led the Loblaws President's Choice business at john st. which in 2016, was awarded Strategy's Brand of the Year.

Steph Mackie
Owner
Mackie Biernacki

As co-founder of the idea shop Mackie Biernacki, Steph is a creative director, art director, and general problem-solver. In the last 4 years at Mackie Biernacki, she has launched a national drug store, she's made an airport more civilized, introduced Hong Kong to alternative fashion, designed a new and delicious beer, and helped save 2 cities from bankruptcy (seriously). She's even cured insomnia and the common cold through The Harrington Method. Experience includes both big multinationals and small independent boutiques here in Canada and the UK. She has been parachuted in to places like Beijing and Dubai to crack a difficult brief. She has revived brands, created brands, and has won Lions, Pencils, Clios, and TED Ideas Worth Sharing.

Leia Rogers
Managing Partner, Creative Director
Rethink

Leia is a Creative Director and Managing Partner at Rethink in Vancouver. Leia began at Rethink in 2010 as an Art Director, and has since developed brand platforms for A&W, BCAA, and Coast Capital Savings. More recently, she’s helped creative direct new campaigns for UNIQLO. Her work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Cannes, Marketing Awards, The Clios, Archive, Applied Arts, Lotus Awards, The ADCC, and her parents.

Denise Rossetto
Chief Creative Officer
BBDO Canada

Denise enjoys the distinction of being one of Canada's top 10 creative directors. She has won awards in every national and international award show including: Cannes Lions, The One Show, Communication Arts and D&AD

She has been part of a team that won 4 Agency of the Year titles.

Denise has judged several international award shows including The One Show, London International, Cannes 2012 and 2015 and D&AD

She sits on many advertising panels and was recently a moderator for Women of Influence. Being a mom of 9 year-old twin boys she would love to do a campaign that changed the world for the better.

Brian Sheppard
EVP, Executive Creative Director
Saatchi & Saatchi

For over two decades, at leading Canadian agencies like Harrod & Mirlin, FCB and Ogilvy & Mather, Brian has helped transform a wide range of brands including Dove, American Express, IBM, Kraft, Tide, Post Cereals, Toyota, Novartis/GSK and Levi’s.

Brian joined Saatchi & Saatchi Canada in 2007, and has been the agency's Executive Creative Director for the past seven years. During his time as ECD, he has won more creative awards for his agency and his clients than anyone else in Saatchi Canada's 30-year history, with wins at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, and Communication Arts. Locally, he's notched over 100 awards at Canadian shows, including 3 Best of Show honours and 18 gold medals. In 2014, Saatchi & Saatchi Canada was named Advertising Agency of the Year by the Ad and Design Club of Canada Awards, the country's oldest and most respected advertising festival. In 2015, Brian ranked #7 on the Strategy Creative Report Card among Canadian Creative Directors.

In addition to his creative and management duties at Saatchi, Brian is actively involved in the Canadian advertising industry as an awards judge, writer and speaker. He has been a jurist at the Applied Arts Awards, The New York Festivals, Strategy’s Agency of the year, the Canadian Marketing Awards, and Cannes. In addition to his duties as ECD at Saatchi, Brian also teaches transmedia storytelling as part of OCADU's advertising faculty.

Ron Smrczek
Executive Creative Director
The & Partnership

Ron got his start in advertising a little earlier than
most, starring in a Mr. Christie cookie commercial
at the age of 5. But it would take nearly twenty
years before he would be on the other side of the
camera, as an Art Director in Toronto.

Prior to joining The&Partnership, Ron worked at
Zulu Alpha Kilo, Commonwealth/McCann in Milan,
and TAXI Toronto, New York, and Amsterdam. In
that time, he’s led regional and international clients
like Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Kraft, MolsonCoors,
Nike, Unilever and Viagra.

Some personal highlights include multiple podium
appearances in Cannes, a nod for one of the
world’s top five campaigns in The Gunn Report,
being ranked as one of the top ten creatives
worldwide by Boards Magazine, and an Emmy
nomination.

Catherine Allen
Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Nick Asik
Creative Director
Wax Partnership Incorporated

Marilou Aubin
Creative Director
LG2

Marie-Eve Best
Creative Director
Bleublancrouge

Pete Breton
Partner & Executive Creative Director
Anomaly Inc

Trent Burton
Executive Creative Director
McCann

Jessica Carter
Art Director
kbs+

Brett Channer
CEO, Founder
Mass Minority

Anthony Chelvanathan
Group Creative Director, Art Director
Leo Burnett Company Ltd

Denise Cole
Co-Founder, Head of Art
Juliet Creative

Nicole Ellerton
Associate Creative Director
J Walter Thompson

Alexandre Emond-Turcotte
Group Creative Director
Brad

Manuel Ferrarini
VP, Creative Director
Tam-Tam\TBWA

JP Gravina
Co-Founder/Partner, Creative
send+receive

Liam Greenlaw
Creative Director
Wasserman & Partners Advertising Inc

Christopher Halminen
Creative Director
Majestic

Danielle Haythorne
Associate Creative Director
One Twenty Three West

Heather Hnatiuk
Associate Creative Director
Grip Limited

Deirdre Hughes
Creative Director
agency59 Design

Shawn King
President, Chief Creative Officer
Arrivals + Departures

Bernice Lo
Associate Creative Director
Arrivals + Departures, Formerly TAXI

Marissa Mastenbroek
Art Director/Creative Director/Freelance at Marissa Mastenbroek

Dorothy McMillan
Chief Creative Officer
Bob's Your Uncle

Neil McOstrich
Co-Founder, Chief Storyteller
Cleansheet Communications

Steve Miller
SVP, Creative Director
OneMethod

Brad Monk
Creative Director, Partner
Central Station

Ian Murray
Creative Director
Gravity Partners Ltd.

Michael Murray
Executive Creative Director
Cheil Canada

Alanna Nathanson
Co-Founder & Co-Creative Director
Giants & Gentlemen

Nicola Pringle
Art Director
Calder Bateman

Rene Rouleau
VP Creative Director
BIMM

Don Saynor
Chief Creative Officer, Partner
The JACK RUSSELL Agency

Andrew Simon
Chief Creative Officer Canada
Edelman Canada

Matt Syberg-Olsen
Executive Creative Director
Doug & Partners

Guybrush Taylor
Executive Creative Director
Camp Jefferson

Judy Timms
Associate Creative Director
Publicis

Nevena Todorovic
Co-Founder and Creative Director
The Young Astronauts

Angus Tucker
Chief Creative Officer
John St.

David Watson
Executive Creative Director, Design
Mosaic

Barb Williams
Executive Creative Director
Track DDB

Cindy Yu
Associate Creative Director
Critical Mass

Claude Auchu
Partner & Executive Chairman & Head of Design
LG2

For 25 years, Claude has been obsessed with everything and anything related to design. Some call him a bit of a fanatic. We prefer to think of him as a branding ace. As a founding partner and creative director of the design studio of lg2, it has quickly become one of the most respected and awarded in Canada.

Claude’s leadership of ten years managing design at lg2 has garnered nearly 400 national and international awards with recognition at Cannes - including 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes Lions, Clios, the One Show, D&AD Graphite and wood pencils, Communication Arts, and the 2012 AACE Award for Best design project in Canada.

lg2' studio has also been recognized as the ADCC’s 2017 Canadian design studio of the year, Bronze winner at the Strategy’s Design Agency of the year and also the most awarded studio at Quebec’s Grafika Awards for the last five years.

2017 Top 10 Infopresse’s personality of the year, graphic design devotee, conference speaker, chairperson and member of numerous juries including the 2016 CANNES Festival, the 2015 CLIO Awards and 2017 Marketing Awards, Claude has accepted awards for his work many times over at North American and international award shows.

Besides running the design department, in 2017 he became the Executive chairman of lg2 to fuel the growth and vision of the agency.

He is also much funnier in French!

Claire Dawson
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Underline Studio

Claire Dawson is creative director and co-founder of Toronto-based design agency, Underline Studio. Claire’s work has been widely published and honoured with awards from the most distinguished national and international competitions, among them D&AD, the Society of Publication Designers (NY) and the Art Director’s Club (NY). She has served as a judge for the One Show, as well as many other national and international creative awards competition.

Dominic Ayre
Creative Director
Hambly & Woolley Inc.

Dominic graduated from The Bournemouth & Poole College in the UK and has worked in Toronto as a designer for more than 20 years. As the Creative Director, with Toronto based design studio Hambly & Woolley, Dominic focuses on high-level strategic initiatives with clients such as the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Harry Rosen, OCAD University, AECON and Quadrangle Architects. Currently on faculty at OCAD University, Dom is an enthusiastic mentor to new designers and is well known within the design community for his expertise in typography, digital platforms, design trends and popular culture.

Mooren Bofill
Executive Director of Design
John St.

Mo is the Executive Director of Design at john st., whose work spans branding, print, editorial, retail, packaging and digital design. She has produced work for clients within food, health, telecom, hospitality, cultural, financial, retail, transportation, and government sectors.

At john st. she has helped launched and transformed brands like Home Hardware, Shoppers Drug Mart, Alcon, Wellwise and Boston Pizza to name a few. Previously, she was Design Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo. At Zulu, she helped launch and build integrated platforms for Corona, Interac, Bell, Coca-Cola, Workopolis and Jack Astor’s.

Her work has been awarded and recognized internationally by Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Luerzer’s Archive, Communication Arts, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Applied Arts, Marketing Magazine, among others. Her other obsessions outside of design are travelling and typography. You can find her obsession with typography on her daily blog: mobofill.tumblr.com

Allison Chambers
Art Director & Designer
Will Creative

Allison Chambers is an Art Director / Designer based out of Vancouver. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art & Design where she graduated with Honours. Her degree is complimented with a Diploma from Capilano University’s IDEA program, also attained with Honours.

Agency experience includes Rethink, Cossette, and 123west before joining Will in July of 2017. Her work has been recognized by Applied Arts, Cannes Lions, Communication Arts, Marketing Awards, Salazar Awards, Adobe Achievement Awards, and the Lotus Awards, amongst others. Her most recent win was this year; a Cannes Lion for the branding of the Vancouver Mural Festival.

Catherine D'Amours
Creative Director and Partner
Nouvelle Administration

Catherine D’Amours is a graduate of the School of Design at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

A multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer and art director In 2014, she became Co-founder

and Artistic Director of the design studio Nouvelle Administration. 

Mike Kelar
ECD
Jacknife

Michael is a product of Ontario College of Art & Design’s respected graphic design program. He co-founded the experimental design studio AmoebaCorp in 1996 and in 2013 came together with other highly respected industry contemporaries to create a refreshing new multi-tooled design led agency Jacknife.

Throughout his professional career, Mike has brought his unique brand of creative craftsmanship and leadership to major projects for the likes of Nike, Molson Coors, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Red Bull, Second Cup, Hudson’s Bay, Weston and Nestlé.

Mike believes that design is more a way of life, not simply an occupation and his near obsessive approach to design has seen his professional and personal work published in numerous international publications in Canada, the US, Japan, Germany and the UK.

An advocate of designing with purpose, Mike often shares his thinking on the need for design with integrity; he believes that good design is the meaningful bridge between functionality and human experience, intuition with inarguable reason.

He thanks his Finnish/Polish extraction for giving him an early start to what would become a lifelong passion for Art & Design culture and counts cutting two albums, seeing Johnny Cash perform live and holding the agency’s most expensive hair cut award (15 years running) as major milestones worth posting on the family fridge.

Mike is also a co-member of the Gentlemen of Canada, a distinguished Toronto based art collective that work to collect, combine, decontextualize and celebrate the rich cultural fabric of the north.

Glenda Rissman
Principal
q30 design inc.

Glenda is co-founder and principal of q30 design inc., a Toronto-based graphic design and communications consulting firm. Like many small business owners, Glenda wears many hats. She assumes the responsibility of running the business, she motivates and inspires her colleagues to deliver the best strategic solutions for q30’s clients and she tries to give back to a community that she feels fortunate to be a part of.

Glenda’s strategic vision has been at the heart of many successful communications projects for a wide variety of q30’s clients, including: Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Ontario Hospital Association, HealthAchieve, Domtar Papers, Canada Post Corporation, Casey House, DesignThinkers and Rotman School of Management.

Stussy Tschudin
Principal and Creative Director 
Forge Media + Design

A conceptual and visual thinker, Stüssy brings creative and strategic insight to every project he oversees as Principal and Creative Director at Forge Media + Design. Championing Forge’s commitment to human-centred design, he’s led projects for clients such as Apple Canada, State Farm, BMO, Medcan, the Town of Newmarket and TIFF.

A reflection of his commitment to design excellence, Stüssy was elected to the Board of Directors of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) where he has served as President since 2014.

When he’s not leading his team at Forge or attending events for RGD, Stüssy can be found curating an impressive watch collection or training for ultra-distance trail races.

Lisa Nakamura
Creative Director of Design
Cossette Communications Inc.

Salima Jivraj
Founder of Halal Food Festival Toronto, Founder & EIC Halal Foodie
Nourish Food Marketing Toronto

Current positions: Account Director at Nourish Food Marketing, Founder of Halal Food Festival Toronto, Founder and Editor of Halal Foodie (print and online).

Salima Jivraj is a food marketer and halal industry expert with a passion for creative design and digital media. Aside from day-to-day operations at Nourish Food Marketing, her responsibility is to help inject innovation and multicultural insights into the agency’s creative work.

In 2011, Salima founded Halal Foodie, a media company focused on halal food in Canada, which eventually led to founding North America’s largest halal food festival in 2012 which attracts over 35,000 attendees annually.

Before deciding to trail blaze into the emerging halal sector in North America, Salima has held leadership roles within marketing departments of national grocery retailers and manufacturing companies. Aside from her own publications, Salima is a regular contributor with other media outlets including Canadian Grocer Magazine.

George Kan
President & Creative Director
Captus Advertising Ltd

George has 25 years of advertising and marketing experiences under his belt.

George started his advertising career in Hong Kong, where he held several senior creative positions at J. Walter Thompson (JWT). His impressive track record and experiences gained from working with some of the biggest brands such as Nike, Shell Oil, Nestle, Citibank, Ford Motors, Rolex and KLM/Northwest Airlines.

In 2009, George and his partner opened their own multicultural creative agency in Vancouver - Captus Advertising. Within a few short years, Captus Advertising has become one of the most awarded creative multicultural advertising agencies in Canada.

Ian Koo
Creative Director
Balmoral Multicultural Marketing

Ian has over 18 years of experience as a creative professional and has a passion for the fusion of classic and modern. He utilizes the latest trends and technologies to develop rich multimedia UX and UI designs. Ian has worked on multicultural campaigns and client accounts both large and small for governments, non-profits and advertising agencies. He has been awarded the IABC Silver Leaf Award of Excellence and Silver Marketing Award for his work. Refined from his tenure as Production Manager and Creative Director at a mainstream multinational publishing house he is equally comfortable in the print and digital world and brings his creative energy, knowledge and expertise to every project.

Elsa Lai
President, Bluesky Creative Communications & Creative Director/Consultant, Koo Multicultural
Bluesky Creative

Reflecting strong transcultural understanding and innovative thinking, Elsa’s work had consistently produced remarkable results for her clients in the past 20 years, including TD Bank, Koodo Mobile, Egg Farmers of Canada, Petro-Canada, General Motors, SickKids Foundation, Concord Adex and Concord Pacific Developments, McDonald’s, Rogers Communications and Bell.

She had also won multiple awards including Multicultural Marketing Award, Summit Creative Award, BILD Award and over fifty CCAMMA and VCAMMA awards including best of show, best TV campaign, best radio campaign and best print campaign.

Prior to establishing her own consultation business, Elsa was the Group Director at Koo (the multicultural division of Cossette), leading its creative, account management and production teams in achieving and over-delivering the goals of Koo and its clients.

Sachi Mukerji
President & Creative Director
Monsoon Communications

Sachi’s parents wanted him to join the Indian civil service and become a diplomat. But someone gave him a copy of Ogilvy’s Confessions
and the rest, as they say, is pure accident. He started his advertising career as a copywriter. By the time he was 28, he was the Executive
Creative Director at Clarion McCann, India’s second largest ad agency at that time..
His career spans 4 countries/4 continents, including 12 years with some of the best agencies in London. Sachi moved to Toronto in the mid
90’s and was SVP at BBDO Canada and SVP at Grey Canada and President of Grey Direct. “But the true turning point in my life was starting
up Monsoon in 2010 with no clients, no people, no office but a great vision on how to build the best multicultural agency in Toronto”. Eight years
later, Monsoon is among the top #3 agencies in the MC category with a client list that’s as blue chip as one can get - Air Canada, Shaw Communications,
Freedom Mobile, Loblaws, Kimberly Clark, University of Toronto, Huawei and Heart & Stroke Foundation amongst others.
Sachi played a pretty good game of squash at one time but now spends his spare time trying to stay fit and cook healthy meals, listen to music,
read crime fiction and espionage novels. He is always ready to champion his strong secular and liberal views to anyone who cares to listen.
Loves baseball, cricket and tennis. He and his wife, Susan, are passionate supporters of wild life preservation and travel frequently to Africa.

Bobby Sahni
Partner & Co-Founder
Ethnicity

Bobby Sahni is a veteran and thought-leader in the multicultural marketing and advertising industry. Bobby was the Head of Multicultural Marketing at Rogers Communications and has been a pioneer in developing, executing and managing diversity and multicultural marketing initiatives for a number of organizations includingCanada Post, Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation, ICICI Bank and Toronto Star. He is Co-Founder and Partner at Ethnicity - a multicultural marketing & advertising agency dedicated to helping companies drive new growth and sales by engaging North America’s fast growing, big spending ethnic and new immigrant communities.

Bobby has earned national and international recognition for his work and thought leadership. Bobby also loves teaching, having guest-lectured at many universities and regularly speaks at industry events and conferences across North America. Bobby sits on a variety of advisory boards including Imagine Canada, Seva Food Bank and Credit Valley Conservation Foundation. Bobby earned his MBA from the global Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program with cross-cultural studies in Hong Kong, Germany, Miami, Chicago and Toronto. He also holds a Bachelor of Science & Business degree from the University of Waterloo. Bobby lives in Toronto with his wife Bonnie and two young sons Jordan and Rayaan.

Meghna Srinivas
Director of Client Service/Multicultural Lead
McCann

With over a decade of advertising work behind her, Meghna Srinivas is an innate communicator of sharp ideas. It is an ability that has been refined and tested through her work with some of the biggest brands around the world, including General Motors, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Sears, TD Canada Trust and Rogers.

Born in Mumbai, India, Srinivas’ career has spanned various agency environments, including Lowe Worldwide and the McCann group, where she currently leads the emergent Multicultural division as Director of Client Servicing. Her breadth of roles is equally diverse—starting out as a copywriter, before advancing into strategic planning, this year marks her 12th anniversary in Multicultural advertising alone.

Being at the forefront of a growing paradigm shift in multicultural marketing, Meghna understands the critical juncture at which mainstream advertising meets multicultural interests, where creative solutions meet solid strategy and where cultural nuances meet marketing opportunities. It is these insights that make her a valuable voice to both clients and contemporaries alike.

Jensen Tsoi
Partner, Creative Director
Dyversity Communication Inc.

Jensen has over 20 years experience in the design and advertising business, spanning three continents – London, Hong Kong and Toronto.

Graduating from the London College of Communications, he worked at creative hot-shops in London before moving to Hong Kong where he worked for Leo Burnett and FCB. He also ran his own shop, Bamboo Advertising before re-locating to Canada.

Jensen has won numerous awards, including a One Show Gold, D&AD Awards and numerous Hong Kong Advertising Golds. During his Europe and Asia stints, worked on accounts such as American Express, Coke, Levis, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Microsoft, Reebok and Tesco.

He joined Dyversity in 2014 soon after arriving in Canada and is working on accounts such as Bell, Canada Post, OLG, RBC and Unilever. In January 2018 he added ‘Partner’ to his title by becoming part owner of Dyversity Communications.

Marvi Yap
Partner
AV Communications

Marvi co-founded multi-awarded AV Communications, a niche advertising agency focusing on the diversity of Canada. Marvi started her advertising career at Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) Manila where she was hand-picked by the agency CEO as his mentee. After rising the ranks at FCB, she became an entrepreneur and formed a media company which is now an enterprise of publications and TV shows (onemegagroup.com).

After a decade, she left for Canada to spread her wings and set up AV Communications along with Anna Maramba only 2 years after immigrating to Canada. The agency works with blue chip accounts such as Western Union, Cineplex, BMO and Randstad.

She has led multicultural campaigns that have won mainstream awards such as the CASSIES, the only Canadian agency that won in the 2017 ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards and the only advertising agency handpicked by Tencent (the 5th biggest company in the world and owners of WeChat), to be their only Canadian partner.

Marvi is a resource speaker who has given numerous insightful talks on multicultural marketing at industry conferences in Toronto and Vancouver. She has also been quoted in several industry publications. Marvi’s success as a woman entrepreneur has been chronicled in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Money Sense and Financial Post.

Kate Zhao
Copywriter & Content Producer
Hamazaki Wong Marketing Group

Words and characters, characters and words. For Kate, they are synonymous like the mellifluous flow of life. With an abundance mindset, Kate sees life like a box of chocolates full of variety and meant to be eaten in anticipation of the next box, all while maintaining her slim figure! Her’s career has exclusively been in the domain of written communications. Recently, she was a journalist with one of Canada’s leading Chinese dailies, where she did editing, proofreading, and creating page layouts. This nimbleness has resulted in a style consonant with today’s traditional and digital media. With a BA in Journalism (Ji Nan University) and a Masters in Communications Studies (University of Windsor), Kate’s North American-Asian sensibilities are acute — skills that she hones as an avid reader and equal opportunity shopper. In addition to copywriting, Kate aims to also develop her skills in coding without the requisite geekiness.

Matt Barnes
Photographer/Director
Matt Barnes Photography

Izzy Ehrlich
Editor
Rooster Post Production

Ron Gervais
Director/Partner
IAMSTATIC

Melanie Hider
Editor
Saints Editorial

Nellie Kim
Partner, Vice‑President, Executive Creative Director
LG2 Toronto

Doug Lowe
SVP, General Manager, Production Services
Cossette Communication Inc.

Lyranda Martin-Evans
Executive Creative Director, Vice President
DentsuBos

Brian Murray
Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy & Mather

Leah Nelson
Partner
Giant Ant

Thomas Neuspiel
President and Creative Director
Toast + Jam

Mary Beth Odell
Independent Postproduction Management

Brendan Quinn
Creative Director
Vapor RMW

Olivier Staub
Filmmaker/Photographer/Creative Director
MileInn

Chris Van Dyke
Editor & Partner
School Editing Inc

Nancy Vonk
Co-Founder and Partner
Swim

Tom Westin
Partner
Grayson Matthews

Mark Zibert
Director
Scouts Honour