2019 Jury

Dave Douglass
Partner & Executive Creative Director
Anomaly

Dave started out creating insight-driven work for Lexus, Toyota, Mackenzie Financial, and The Children's Aid Society. He then accepted a posting to London, where he continued to develop successful campaigns for British clients Hamlet Cigars, McEwans Lager, Hampton Court Palace, and the Tower of London.

Since returning to his homeland (Canada), Dave has developed a diverse array of work for an equally-diverse roster of clients including McDonalds, General Mills, Lexus, Stella Artois, Budweiser, Alexander Keith's, WestJet, Coca-Cola, and Molson.

His work has been awarded both nationally and internationally including Gold and Silver awards from The Cannes International Advertising Festival, The One Show, Clios, CA, D&AD and Media Innovation Awards. In 2005 his work for the Canadian Film Center was the number two most awarded campaign in the world.

Formally Dave was co-creative chief at Lowe Roche. He and his long time creative collaborator Pete Breton are co-ECDs at Anomaly Toronto.

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.

Catherine Allen
Group Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Catherine is an award-winning Creative Director at the gutsy, independent Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo. Starting as a designer more than 15 years ago, Catherine’s career has evolved to see her lead campaigns for some of the country’s biggest brands including Bell, Kraft, Labatt, Unilever, Yum, American Express and Cadbury. Her work has been featured in both national and international publications and received recognition at numerous award shows including Cannes, Ones Shoe, D&AD, the Effies and Epica.

Nick Asik
Creative Director
WAX

Nick’s career has spanned North America, working for agencies in Toronto, Calgary, Los Angeles and New York. He’s leant his creativity to brands like Audi, Coca-Cola, Corona, Google, Honda and Nintendo.

His ads have garnered over 300 million views online, have been written about in the New York Times, featured on major news networks worldwide and parodied by Saturday Night Live. Nick is a frequent speaker at ad schools, helping to inspire the next generation of creative thinkers.

Marilou Aubin
Creative Director
LG2

With more than 17 years of experience in advertising and digital communication, Marilou is always searching for new ways to create engaging consumer experiences. Throughout her career, she has crafted close to 50 award-winning works (and 150 prizes) in storytelling, content creation, web and mobile experiences, and interactive environments, both in Quebec and internationally.

In 2009, she and her toolbox of industry tricks travelled to São Paulo, joining the team at AgênciaClick, where she worked on Philips, Fiat and Blowtex. As a Creative Director at lg2 since 2011, Marilou has been a driving force behind key activations and digital campaigns for QuébecOriginal, Tourisme Montréal, the SAAQ, Hydro-Québec, Desjardins and Bell. Her somewhat obsessive curiosity for new technologies and their impact on the communication universe continuously inspires her work, which has helped lg2 to become Canada’s most awarded agency and the largest independent creative agency in the country. In the last couple of years, she’s earned 2 shortlists at Cannes Lions, 5 Merits at The One Show and 4 Communication Arts and 4 Webby awards, to name a few.

She has recently been invited to sit on the jury for the CLIO and the Atomic Awards (Canada). In 2019, she will be the first female president of the Créa, Quebec’s most prestigious national advertising awards.

Manuel Ferrarini
VP, Creative Director
Tam-Tam\TBWA

Now in his fourth year as Creative Director at Tam-Tam\TBWA, Manuel Ferrarini drove the creative that brought the agency its first Grand Prix CRÉA for La Grande Guignolée des Médias (The Media’s Big Food Drive). 

During his time at the agency he has also proudly headed outstanding campaigns that garnered STRAT awards (Quebec), Strategy Awards, Prix Médias, and Cassies. 

Previously, Manuel was ACD at Taxi’s Montreal office, acting as creative lead on the Telus account and prior to this, he worked for nearly 12 years as an art director at Saint-Jacques Vallée Y&R. Here he created major campaigns for Ford, Danone, Air Miles, Ontario Tourism and Sico. He began his career way back when with 4 years at Publicis. 

Keen to inspire the next generation, Manuel at one time lectured on/taught advertising at the Université de Montréal.

When not thinking up and perfecting advertising campaigns, Manuel occupies his spare time by bringing up his two kids and renovating, no… make that rebuilding, the house they live in.  

Laura Kim
Executive Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors

Laura believes in the power of advertising to shift culture. Her work has spanned the globe, speaking to diverse audiences and sparking movements for brands such as Adidas Originals, Burger King, and Innocence Canada. Along the way, she has picked up awards at Cannes, One Show, and D&AD. Before Forsman, Laura honed her craft at Sid Lee in Amsterdam and Toronto, as well as Bleublancrouge and TAXI in Montreal.

Ian Mackenzie
Chief Creative Officer
FCB Six

Across 15 years in the business, first as writer then creative director, Ian has worked at the forefront of digital and creative innovation. During that time, his work has earned more than 100 international awards for creativity and effectiveness, including One Show, D&AD, Clios, Webby Awards and a total of 17 Cannes Lions. In 2014, he was ranked #1 Copywriter in Canada in Strategy Magazine’s Creative Report Card. Ian was also co-creator and writer of the influential “Our Food. Your Questions.” radical transparency platform for McDonald’s, which started in Canada then rolled out globally. As creative leader of the data-driven creative agency FCB/SIX, Ian helmed “Destination Pride” for PFLAG Canada, which became the most awarded Canadian campaign at the 2018 Cannes Lions – and one of the most awarded campaigns in Canadian history. Major clients have included Honda, AB/InBev, Cadbury, Taco Bell and BMW.

Lyranda Martin-Evans
Executive Creative Director, Vice President
DentsuBos

When Lyranda began her career as a copywriter over 18 years ago, her parents sent her brochures for law schools.  Now she’s an award-winning executive creative director, vice president, author of the bestselling parenting book “Reasons Mommy Drinks”, and podcast host of “Lead by Womenwill” which aims to address gender disparity in the workforce and champion young women in their careers. Her mother still wonders when she’s going to get a real job.

Steve Miller
Partner, VP, Executive Creative Director
FUSE

Hmmm, what can be said about Steve Miller... Well, since joining OneMethod in 2005, he’s helped build the creative culture that’s come to define the agency, resulting in more than 190 awards across advertising and design.

Let’s see, he’s also worked with some mighty influential brands including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Nestlé, Google, McDonald’s, FedEx, Microsoft, Daimler Chrysler, Kijiji, Mastercard, and Johnson & Johnson, to name a few. He’s sat on the Seneca College Advertising Advisory Committee and as Chair of the Humber College Copywriting Advisory Board. AND, he’s also sat as judge for DAOY, PROMO! Awards, AToMiCs, Webbys, and New York Festivals. He also regularly speaks at colleges and conferences and teaches the odd class at Miami Ad School.

And when he’s not doing all of that, you can find him playing music, sketching, and writing bios in the third person.

Allen Oke
Executive Creative Director
Huge Inc.

Allen is an Executive Creative Director with over 20 years of experience in all areas of marketing. Starting as a writer, he has enjoyed using creativity to make work that works, and deliver business results for a wide range of brands such as Cineplex, Audi, Nissan, Bell, Interac, Visa, Gatorade, Harley-Davidson, Four Seasons, Canadian Tire and Unilever to name a few.

At Huge, Allen oversees a multi-disciplinary design team that includes Experience Design, Visual Design, and Integrated Art & Copy communications who apply the principles of user experience to everything a brand touches. In the past couple years his team has reimagined the store experience for a major retailer, reinvented the online and on-property ecosystem for a leading luxury hotel chain, redefined the brand identity for an aging shoe brand from logo and design system to creating the very shoes themselves, and delivered a marketing program for a provincial bank seeking to tell internal and external audiences about all the complex innovations they will be delivering in the future.

Allen encourages teams to use all of the tools today’s creatives have before them to solve any business challenge. This has allowed he and his teams to push the confines of the brief, and find success for brands in ways oftentimes quite unconventional. Because of this, their work has been recognized at Cannes, D&AD, Clios, The ADCCs, Webby’s, the FWA amongst others.

Andrew Simon
Chief Creative Officer Canada
Edelman Canada

With an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Andrew is anything but the typical Chief Creative Officer. He began his career in the US at JWT New York and Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. In 2001, he moved to Toronto to join DDB, eventually rising to the role of Executive Creative Director. In his nine years at the agency, DDB was named Agency of the Year an unprecedented five times and Canada’s most creative agency six times. Andrew joined Edelman in September 2015 and in 2017, helped the team win Strategy's PR Agency of the Year as well as earn the first Cannes Lion ever awarded to a Canadian PR agency. Andrew is acknowledged as an industry leader and has been featured on CBC’s The National, The Age of Persuasion, Metro Morning, Q, Global TV’s Global National, TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, and has been profiled by both the Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star. In early 2019, he was made President of the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, making him the second most unqualified President in North America.

Mia Thomsett
Creative Director
123w

Mia recently joined One Twenty Three West, a creative collective with a unique business model of low overhead and high talent. She’s known for building brands through strategically sound creative and making game-changing campaigns for nonprofits. Over the years, her work has picked up an award or two and apparently appeared somewhere in an advertising textbook. She’s been employed by several creative shops like john st., TBWA\Vancouver and DARE and has worked with clients such as Save-on-Foods, Honda, Tetley, McDonald's, YMCA, BC Children’s Hospital and War Child Canada. Despite living on the West Coast, you will not find Mia trail running nor stand up paddle boarding.

Christina Yu
Partner, ECD
Rethink

Christina Yu is recognized as one of Canada's Top 100 thought leaders. 

She currently leads the creative discipline at Rethink in Toronto. 

Prior to joining Rethink, Christina led all creative at Red Urban Canada - An agency she helped form in 2010 with Volkswagen as their first client. During this time, Volkswagen Canada saw five years of sales records and a few Cannes Lions.  Christina was also one of the Creative Directors for Team Blue, creating international work for Volkswagen and was one of the key team members that helped Omnicom's "We Are Unlimited" pitch and win the Mcdonald's business in America. In 2015, Red Urban was awarded Subaru Canada where she helped break sales records while there. 

Before Red Urban, Christina was the Vice President, Creative Director at Lowe Roche. Some highlights while there include Canadian Agency of the Year honours and award winning work on Audi, Global Stella Artois, J&J, Virgin Mobile, and Capital One. 

Over the years, Christina has been awarded at every major award show in the world including Cannes, Clios and the One Show on blue chip clients like FedEx, Stella Artois, and Pepsi to name a few.  She’s also been included on the prestigious 30 Under 30 list, been named one of Canada’s “Marketing Icons in the Making”, has been a speaker at industry events, and taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Jaimes Zentil
Executive Creative Director
Cossette

Jaimes Zentil is Executive Creative Director of Cossette Toronto.

Throughout his career in Canada, his work has been recognised at all major advertising award shows, including One Show, Cannes Lions, and D&AD amongst others. Most recently, he received the first and only Creative Effectiveness Lion to be awarded in Canada for the SickKids VS Campaign.

Over the past three and a half years, Jaimes has been instrumental in the creative resurgence at Cossette Toronto with the agency recently achieving a three-peat as Strategy Agency of the Year.

Jaimes has a full back piece tattoo of a birthmark.

Isabelle Allard-Gendron
Co-Creative Director
Sid Lee

An Art Director for more than a decade, Isabelle has a particular passion for brand building and brand identities. Infusing soul, character and timelessness to national and international brands in complex markets is one of her greatest assets. A multi-award-winning designer (Cannes, ADC and Type Directors Club) her talents have been put to the test for clients like: The North Face, National Bank of Canada and Théâtre Espace Go, to name a few.

James Ansley
Co-Managing Director
Grey Canada

James is an Executive Creative Director at GREY Toronto. His work has been featured in D&AD, The One Show, Cannes, Marketing Magazine, The CASSIES and The ADCCs.

Natalie Armata
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
Giants & Gentlemen

Natalie has been creating things since she was 6, and was known for her "surprise endings." Surprise, surprise, she started an agency. Giants & Gentlemen was founded on a philosophy she's practiced her entire career: do great work that stands out, ego-free. With a whack of National and International industry awards, as a teacher at the Toronto Miami Ad School, creds as a Registered Graphic Designer and an MBA from Ivey in the works, she challenges the G&G team to do innovative work that's always beautifully crafted. (Some say OCD, we say high standards.)

Anthony Atkinson
Group Creative Director
Leo Burnett

Caroline Barrette
President, Creative Director
Archipel

For the past 25 years, Caroline Barrette has dedicated her professional life to the full spectrum of creative communications.

Caroline began her career as a copywriter at ad agencies lg2 and Allard Johnson/Kbs, and moved on to become Creative Director at Archipel. She and her various teams have won several awards over the years, including: Créa, Applied Arts, Extra, Boomerang, Social Buzz Awards and many others. She also spearheaded the creation of the ad campaign for Justin Trudeau in Quebec during the last federal elections.

Currently holding the position of President and Chief Creative Officer at Archipel, Caroline Barrette is an entrepreneur and business leader whose personal mission is to encourage creativity in those who surround her, in every aspect of their life.

Simon Beaudry
Creative Director
K72

Simon creates—period. Before joining K72 as Creative Director in 2016, he honed his craft at Radio-Canada, Sid Lee, Marketel (McCann), Bos, DentsuBos and as freelance.

He is known for being original, energetic and strategic—a reputation he owes to, among other things, his multi- and cross-disciplinary approach (in addition to his career in advertising, he’s adept in the visual arts), but mostly to his deep involvement in each and every project he works on.

Whether it’s as a creative for clients like Sloche—whose brand he helped develop over a 10-year period—as a responsible citizen for causes that are dear to his heart, or as creative director for the new kind of agency he’s helping to build, he always gives it his all and surrounds himself with inspiring people.

Over the course of his career, he’s won several local, national and international awards, including Two Best of Show at PMC (Mtl), another best of show at the CREAs. He also won some others at Marketing Award, New York Festival Award, Clio, Shots, Luerzer’S Archives and One Show, and has been a two-time finalist at Cannes. He’s also been a member of the jury for the Marketing (Can), Clio (print) (usa), Boomerang (interactive) (Qc), CREA (advertising) (Qc), Grafika (design) (Qc), and Lux (photo and illustration) (Qc) awards.

Martin Beauvais
Partner
Open

Martin is a designer, creative director, photographer and director.

He has solved creative challenges as an Executive Creative Director at some of Canada’s top agencies, including Taxi, BBDO, zig and TBWA. Martin’s passion for mixing various disciplines into his work has served to benefit brands like Best Buy, Milk, IKEA, Sunlife, Bauer, Nike Hockey, Labatt and Molson, to name a few. Marketing Magazine named Martin as one of the most important people in Canadian Marketing. Strategy magazine has called him possibly the best bilingual creative in Canada.

Martin founded Open in 2010. Open is the only bilingual independent boutique agency in Canada. Open has worked with some of Canada's top brands: Twitter Canada, Smythe, Metro, FoodBasics, Toys R Us, Sleeman Breweries, Boulart, Cineplex, Penguin Pick Up and Recipe.

Martin lives in Toronto with his two lovely but fiery daughters: Mathilde and Lola. They like to ski, binge watch Netflix, eat yummy vegan foods and muck about. 

Diego Bertagni
Creative Director
Flipp

In 2010, after working at several independent agencies he landed finally at Ogilvy & Mather Buenos Aires. There he worked on projects for Coca Cola, Sprite, Kotex/Day’s, Banco Santander Rio, Huggies, AMIA and Salta Beer. In February 2012, he was promoted to Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, where he had the opportunity to work on SC Johnson and Philips. A year later he was put in charge of OgilvyOne with clients such as American Express and Fanta.

His next step was on the other side of the world, at Tribal Worldwide Toronto. He spent 3 great years working for brands such McDonald’s, Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Mars and Canadian Tire among others.

Finally after a total of 13 years in the ad agency industry, he joined Flipp where he is working with a big team to reinvent the way people shop.

Awards: Cannes, Clio, One Show, FIAP, Wave, Ojo de Iberoamérica, Effie, IAB, Applied Arts, Webbys, Marketing Awards, Canadian Marketing Association Award (CMA), Advertising & Design Club of Canada (ADCC), FWA, IABC Gold Quills Award, Kinsale Shark Award, New York Festival, 100archive, Atomic and Diente (Círculo de Creativos Argentinos).

He has been member of the Jury: Webby Awards, New York Festival, Effie North America, Canadian Marketing Association Award (CMA), AdStars Festival, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, AMDIA and el Diente. He has also taught at Miami Ad School in Buenos Aires.

Mark Biernacki
Owner. Thinker. Doer
Mackie Biernacki

Since co-founding Mackie Biernacki with long-time creative partner Steph, Mark has been a part of many unusual (and some usual) projects. The idea shop has helped save a city from bankruptcy, launch a brand for an international soccer star, reminded travelers that at least one airport could still be civilized, and reassured panicked homeowners that mold is not a horror show.

Mark has worked at big multinationals and small independent boutiques. He has been parachuted to places like Beijing, Dubai, and LA to crack a difficult brief. He has won Lions, Pencils, Clios, TED Ideas Worth Sharing, and yes, he has even published a coffee table book.

Joseph Bonnici
Partner & Executive Creative Director
Bensimon Byrne

Joseph Bonnici is a Partner and the Executive Creative Director of Bensimon Byrne.  For the past 7 years he has helped lead explosive growth at Bensimon Byrne, helping it become one of the largest independent agencies in Canada. In 2018, Bensimon Byrne was named AdAge’s International Agency of the Year.

He has chaired the Marketing Awards, the CMAs and the National Advertising Challenge. He has been awarded golds at every creative award show, including multiple Cannes Lions, D&AD and One Show Pencils, and Clios.  

Joseph has a partner named Bryden who works for a rival agency. In their spare time they often debate whose success is most important to their future retirement goals.

Nadine Brunet
Senior Designer
Bold

Rica Eckersley
Creative Director & Writer
UNION

Rica Eckersley has spent over 15 years helping brands find their unique voice and shaping their narratives across multiple platforms. Her keen sense of insight and love of storytelling have helped her create memorable campaigns for clients such as Virgin Mobile, IKEA, Jamieson Vitamins, and Weston Bakeries. 

Her work has been recognized by the One Show, Communication Arts, the Epica Awards, the Advertising and Design Club of Canada, and more. 

Rica is also one of the founders of Fierce Mama, greeting cards that celebrate the working power mom.

Ric Fedyna
Executive VP, Creative
WS Calgary

Ric brings a deep roster of campaigns, clients and awards to his role as EVP, Creative at WS. His vision shapes each campaign, while his thoughtful leadership ensures that his team delivers every time. In his 30+ year career, Ric has managed creative teams both large and small, for locally owned agencies to multi-nationals. He takes pride in inspiring ideas and creative concepts that connect brands with their audiences. When he’s not creating compelling campaigns for his clients, he can be found watching the patterns of nature and painting wildlife on canvas to further feed his inspiration.

Marie-Josee Gagnon
CEO & Founder
Casacom

Marie-Josée Gagnon is recognized by peers and clients alike as one of Canada’s most progressive public relations experts. In 2001, she founded CASACOM, an integrated firm headquartered in Montréal with an office in Toronto.

CASACOM provides strategic counsel to support the business strategy of renowned brands in various industries, such as Expedia, Toyota, Aeroplan, Kiewit and Agropur. An Alumni of Harvard Business School’s Owners/Presidents Management program, Marie-Josée brings innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial flair into all she does.

Over the years, she received many awards whether from the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montréal, Women of Influence, Profit Top 100, RBC or the communication industry associations, to name a few. She is a finalist of the 2017 EY Quebec Entrepreneur's Grand Prix.

In 2017, in order to involve herself even more in the women's success cause, Marie-Josée launched Brave, a series of interviews with women who dared recorded during networking events and broadcast in podcasts.

Bryn Gallagher
Creative Director
Publicis

American-born, Montreal-bred, creatively-based. Bryn started as a writer some 15 years ago and has worked for FCB, Cossette and Publicis on everything from beer to beauty, cars to coins, pharma to phones. She has created national campaigns for clients like Coca-Cola, Royal Canadian Mint, Molson, Abbott and Nivea. Most recently shifting her main focus to the beauty industry, flexing her strategic muscles in developing innovative, results-driven digital campaigns for L’Oreal that have set performance records and defined internal benchmarks, and in turn, adapted on a global level. Her work has been recognized by several publications including Strategy and Infopresse. Not to mention her hair has never looked better.

Sanya Grujicic
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter
john st.

Sanya Grujicic is a copywriter and associate creative director at john st. - one of the most consistently awarded agencies in Canada. At john st., she’s helped transform Canada’s biggest retail brands like President’s Choice, No Frills and Home Hardware.

She spent her formative years at Tribal DDB Toronto, considered then the best digital agency in Canada and has the international awards to show for it. Her most recent silver Cannes Lion for radio for the Ministry of Transportation holds a special place in her craft-loving heart. Most notably, her headshot is living its best life.

Raj Gupta
Senior Art Director
J. Walter Thompson

Raj Gupta is an art director and recognized Illustrator in Toronto.

He currently plies his trade at JWT where he has worked on brands such as Air Canada, HSBC, Tim Hortons, Walmart and Mazda. Prior to Toronto, he honed his craft in Melbourne and Dubai working and winning on campaigns for Ferrari, Nissan and Greenpeace to name a few. His work has been recognized in annuals such as Communication Arts, Applied Arts, ADCC and has picked up metal in international shows such as Cannes, Dubai Lynx, Epica and Loeries.

In his downtime, you’ll find him organizing the shelves of his online art shop and scheming his next side hustle.

Jason Hill
Creative Director
Target

Jason Hill recently joined Newfoundland agency Target in September 2018 as Creative Director, to oversee creative work on all accounts, including the much loved and awarded Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism.

Jason began his career in a few small but award winning boutique agencies in the UK, before eventually moving to TBWA.

In 2002 he relocated to Canada where he worked as an art director and ACD at some of the best agencies in Toronto including Taxi, Zig and CPB Toronto. 

During his career, Jason has produced many award winning campaigns for brands such as IKEA, Viagra, Virgin, AXE and Nissan, and has been awarded globally in many shows including Cannes and One Show.

Gary Holme
Director of Art and Content
Mass Minority

Gary Holme grew up in Detroit, moved to Canada in 1990 and built his advertising career in Toronto. Holme has been an art director, a CD and an ECD for some of the best agencies in the world, including Chiat/Day, Sapient Nitro, FCB, Publicis, Y&R and J. Walter Thompson. He is also an accomplished artist and published illustrator, and has spent his career weaving creativity with commercial success on a myriad of award-winning brands and projects. He is currently Director of Art & Content at Mass Minority Toronto, writing, producing and directing videos and content for businesses of all sizes across many platforms and channels. 

Gary Holme has been called many things ~ artist, illustrator, writer, art director and creative provocateur.

Daryl Klein
Associate Creative Director
Bob's Your Uncle

Daryl is the Associate Creative Director at feisty Toronto agency Bob’s Your Uncle. Deeply rooted in design, Daryl’s work has inspired brands like Molson, Canon, Catelli and Bosch as well as brought once unknown brands like Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Popeyes, Greens+ and numerous others to prominence.

When not creating for a living, Daryl creates for life – amusing himself with side projects like designing and building his own ultra-modern house as well as raising a small family and an exceptionally large dog.

Stephanie Kochorek
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Daughter

A founder and co-creative director at Daughter, Stephanie is known for sometimes using bad words, but mostly trying to put together good ones. It’s an ability she’s been honing for more than a decade since her days at Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco. It was there that she cut her teeth helping create multi-faceted campaigns across their client roster, including more than a couple Fortune 500 brands.  After three years she worked at WAX for clients like SAIT, Fas Gas and the Calgary Farmer’s Market, she went to Rethink, where she was the tambourine, making monster sounds, and the creation and execution of many campaigns including work for Science World and Coast Capital Savings. Her work has been recognised by award shows including the Crystal Radio Awards, Lurzer’s Archive, One Show, Communication Arts and Applied Arts.  

Graham Lang
Chief Creative Officer
Juniper Park\TBWA

Graham started his career at The Jupiter Drawing Room in Cape Town as an Art Director. He moved to Saatchi & Saatchi London in 2003 as a Creative Director. In 2008, he joined RKCR/Y&R as the Global ECD on Land Rover. In October 2011, he returned to South Africa to take on a regional position as Chief Creative Officer for Y&R AFRICA. Graham has won every major industry award across traditional and non-traditional categories. Amongst other shows, he has been selected to serve on The One Show, Cannes Lions and D&AD. Graham is Currently the CCO at Juniper Park\TBWA based in Toronto working on brands across North America.

Lena Lee
Senior Art Director
Saatchi & Saatchi

Lena is an art and design junkie, always looking to be inspired by and to create something beautiful and moving. As a Senior Art Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Lena has worked on some the biggest brands in the world. Over the years, she has honed her skills to deliver the best in class results for her clients and has had her work recognized by awards shows such as the One Show, Applied Arts, CMAs, the FWA and Bessies along the way.

Jeff MacEachern
Chief Creative Officer
Arrivals + Departures

For the past 18 years, Jeff has worked hard to champion and develop breakthrough work for many of Canada’s biggest brans – Koodo Mobile, Kraft Peanut Butter, KD, MiO and MINI to name a few. Jeff recently signed on as CCO at Arrivals + Departures after 10 years at TAXI where he created campaigns that earned him global recognition across multiple shows such as Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios, Marketing Awards, ADCC’s, and many more.

Julie Markle
Group Creative Director
Ogilvy

Julie loves developing big thinking and sinking her teeth into any challenge. Most recently, she has put her mark on brands like Dove and Huggies. Whether it is shaping the self-esteem of women and young girls, or communicating the importance of touch for babies, Julie’s work tries to change lives, have a meaningful impact and create brand love.

While Julie's creative has been recognized by Cannes (including a 2018 shortlist for the Glass Lion for Change), D&AD, One Show, Clios and Communication Arts, she prides herself on the effectiveness of her brand-building work, evidenced by numerous Effies and Cassies. In 2017, she collected two Grand Prix awards locally, and her work on Huggies (No Baby Unhugged) was picked up globally. 

In her spare time, Julie cooks a mean chicken soup, and raises her two boys.

Marty Martinez
Global Executive Creative Director - Health
Tank

With over 18 years of experience in advertising, Marty combines outstanding creativity with superior knowledge of the health industry. His work has spanned the globe, pushing the creative envelope for both healthcare and consumer brands while picking up several awards along the way.

Beginning his career as an art director, Marty quickly rose to Senior Art Director at Publicis, to VP of Art and Production at Gallant Leaman Group, to VP Creative Director at Sudler & Hennessey before becoming Creative Director at Ogilvy Commonhealth.

Now Global Executive Creative Director at TANK, Marty is doing what he loves best.

He leads a talented team of designers, art directors and writers to craft campaigns that create value and respond to the needs of brands.

His passion for advertising, team-building capacity and creative vision is what drives him and makes him a leader in his field.

Krystle Mullin
Creative Director
RPA

Krystle Mullin is an award-winning Creative Director at RPA in Los Angeles, California. She moved to the USA in 2017 after having spent a number of years at some of Canada’s most creatively renowned agencies, including FCB Canada and BBDO Toronto. Her work has earned a number of industry awards for creativity and effectiveness, including 13 Cannes Lions for her work on PFLAG Canada’s DestinationPride.org. In 2016, she was 1 of 15 women from around the world selected into the Cannes Lions’ See it, Be it program.

As a thought-leader/activist for equality in advertising, she’s organized and participated in speaking events across North America. In 2018, she was a featured speaker at the 3% Conference, and was honoured with The One Club’s Next Creative Leader award, which recognizes 10 women in the industry who represent the future of creativity. She was recently shortlisted as one of the Top Creative Directors in Canada by Strategy Magazine.

Julie Nikolic
Creative Director
Camp Jefferson

Julie is a Creative Director at Camp Jefferson leading the Koodo account. She has worked as an award-winning and internationally recognized Art Director for 18+ years, at some of Toronto’s top agencies (BBDO and TAXI). She’s created smart, strategic campaigns for brands such as Starbucks, Chrysler, Frito-Lay, Campbell’s, Diet Pepsi and the Canadian Paralympic Committee. 

Thomas Orum
Chief Creative Officer
Trampoline

Given the similarities between the Danish flag and Trampoline’s logo, perhaps it was fate that a Dane found his way to Halifax to take the creative reigns at the region’s fastest growing marketing agency. Hailing from a tiny country known for its big ideas, Thomas brings an international toolbox to the task.

After training at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, Thomas jumped headfirst into the agency world with a role at J. Walter Thompson, NY. With a strong wanderlust, the ensuing years found him plying his trade in California as well as agencies in London, and eventually back to Copenhagen where he ran a division of Grey/WPP. Along the way, he started a successful clothing label, his own creative boutique agency, and built an award-winning magazine from scratch.

Thomas’s entrepreneurial spirit combined with his depth of experience serving major brands such as Audi, Volvo, British Airways, Coca-Cola, and Smirnoff, proved to be precisely the balance Trampoline was seeking to move them forward creatively.

Adriana Palanca
Creative Director
Havas Montreal

A lifelong wordsmith, Adriana was been working in the advertising industry for close to 20 years. She began her career as a freelance copywriter and content strategist, helping local agencies, small businesses and startups create compelling ad and website copy. This commitment to finding the right insights and using them to tell a pitch-perfect brand story continues in her work at Havas Montréal. As an English-speaking Montrealer with a passion for language and culture, Adriana is always sensitive to how different messages are received by different people—a strength that feeds her ability to make creative that is always relevant.

Eva Polis
VP & Creative Director
DDB Canada

Eva Polis is DDB Edmonton’s VP Creative Director. She began her career in the agency world as a copywriter. While awards are definitely a motivator, the chance to solve client challenges creatively is what she loves most about this industry. “You have to stay relevant to be relevant.” Is one of her mottos. Working on social marketing causes is a personal fave because changing lives – even in small ways – matters. A perfect day for her is a day spent with the Sunday edition of The New York Times -- even if it’s on a Monday.

Erin Richards
Founder
Hype PR

Founder of Hype PR, Erin Richards, is one of Toronto’s best known media relations specialists whose network of media contacts spans the nation. Hype PR currently works with a wide range of clients; consulting with agencies, local startups, large brands, as well as directly with athletes and personalities looking to build a personal brand.

During her years with Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC, she managed a team of communications specialists across the radio, news, digital, documentary, sports and entertainment files. Prior to that, she worked as a publicist on a number of television programs, representing network talent, and on sports programming during the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

She has also been a Senior Consultant at Veritas Communications. On the agency side she has applied her unique expertise to a variety of clients and projects across industries - from helping to grow brand awareness for startups to managing established brands such as Lise Watier Cosmétiques, Target, Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Mott’s Clamato, Wines of Ontario, Maple Leaf Foods, and many more.

Paul Riss
Founding Partner, Creative Director
Round

Paul is one of the premier creatives in Canada working on clients across all categories. Bud Light, Subaru, BMW, Auto Trader, McDonald’s, Walmart and Capital One are just a few of the clients Paul has worked on throughout his career. 

He has garnered awards in every advertising award show both locally and around the world, including 3 Cannes Lions for Cialis. Paul’s work on the Subaru Sumo Carwash campaign received coverage in the New York Times and in virtually every major Canadian newspaper. The campaign has become a part of advertising curriculum in a university textbook.

Francois Sauve
President
RED

François Sauvé has worked in advertising agencies for more than 20 years. He started at Natcom, then moved to Cossette where he launched McDonald’s pizza and created campaigns for Chevrolet, Cadillac, Culinar, Air Canada and EnRoute, before founding TAXI with Paul Lavoie.
 
François then became owner of TAM-TAM, which he made part of the international TBWA network. He was creative director for Nissan and, internationally, for Avid Technologies and Apple computers, as well as handling the Fonds de solidarité account. While at LG2, François created the famous “Ceci n’est pas un banque” [This is not a bank] campaign for Desjardins. He also gave the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region a catchy new name: “48e Nord, la nouvelle Frontière” [the 48th parallel, the new frontier]
 
In 2003, François founded RED. He was soon joined by art director Guy Lévesque and Marie Grégoire. In the early days, RED was the go-to place for ad agencies that needed outstanding one-of-a-kind campaigns for major clients.
 
A proven strategist and renowned for his creative, François’ wealth of experience gives him a keen sense of what makes effective communications and the know-how to deliver solutions that work.

Ian Schwey
VP, Executive Creative Director
Tag

Ian reflects the perfect mix of creativity and strategy. As ECD of tag, he is in constant search of the next big idea, and helps lead his team to engage consumers through insight and innovation, while remaining channel-neutral. By collaborating with clients, this belief has helped him create successful campaigns for brands such as Philips, General Motors, Nestle, Canada Goose, Kellogg’s, First Choice Haircutters, KFC, Rogers and Kraft.

While Ian’s focus has always been centered on creating transformative work for the brands he touches, his initiatives have also been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios, London International, CA, ADCC, Marketing Awards, Atomic Awards and The Cassies.

On the side, Ian performs as a part-time magician, from doing street magic in Japan to overcharging lawyers at corporate gigs. And from time to time, he does stand-up comedy (think Jerry Seinfeld meets Mitch Hedberg, minus the killer material).

Laura Serra
Creative Director
Narrative

A recovering journalist, ex account lead, and raging Raptors fan, Laura is a Creative Director at Narrative / Bensimon Byrne / OneMethod specializing on integrated projects. Laura is truly a multi-hyphenate creative with an expertise across a range of disciplines including public relations, experiential, influencer marketing, as well as more traditional forms of mass advertising, digital, and social. An industry vet with over 15 years experience, her career began at The Globe and Mail where she wore many hats and worked across several departments, most notably as the Society Editor, before hopping the media fence to agency life in 2011. Alongside her creative partner, she’s led some of the agency’s most inspiring work including the entire Nike portfolio, Converse, Salesforce, Bayer, Bumble, Up Cannabis, and was a key player in the agency’s latest success story with Casey House, where they launched the world’s first pop-restaurant (2017) and spa (2018) run by people living with HIV/AIDS to shine a light on the stigma that still exists.

Jennifer Siripong
Chief Digital Officer
No Fixed Address

As Chief Digital Officer, Jennifer oversees an amazing team of NFA-ers in the creation of award winning advertising campaigns and brand platforms. With over 15 years of experience in roles including Strategy, Account Services and Project Management, Jennifer has a rich digital perspective. Having contributed to brands like FIAT Chrysler Association, Dairy Queen, and Questrade, Jennifer has proven her unique ability to design and architect experiences across the entire advertising ecosystem. 

Randy Stein
Partner, Creative Director
Grip Limited

At the age of 29, Randy was named Creative Director of Canada’s top creative agency -Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver.  There he led the agency to a then unprecedented three-peat as Strategy Magazine's “Agency of the Year”.  Randy was behind the first ever feature film created by a brand - Kokanee’s “The Movie Out Here”, which has been recognized internationally as a groundbreaking piece of branded content and described byMarketingmagazine as “one of the most audacious marketing campaigns in Canadian history”.  More recently, he was behind Lindt Chocolate’sThe Bell That Rang in Easter– A children’s interactive storybook that became the #1 book on the Canadian iTunes store - another branded content success story. His work has been recognized by every major awards show including Cannes, One Show, D&AD and Communication Arts.  Randy has had the privilege of working on iconic brands such as Honda, RBC, McDonald's, Lindt and KFC.

Stuart Thursby
Founder, Creative Director
Stack

Stuart Thursby is the Founder & Creative Director of Stack Creative. Prior to forming Stack, Stuart worked at agencies such as AJ&Smart, BBDO, DDB, FCB/SIX, Proximity and Teehan+Lax, and his awards shelf includes statues, plaques and pencils from the ADC, Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Webby's, and many more. Key clients over the years have included CIBC, Canadian Olympic Committee, Mercedes-Benz, PFlag Canada, Rogers, Samsung, Scotiabank, Travel Yukon, Wattpad, and World Vision.

Jess Willis
VP & ECD
Mosaic

Jess’ over 15-year career has spanned some of Canada’s most recognized ad agencies like TAXI, Ogilvy & Cossette, across a variety of disciplines from design to digital to more traditional mediums and now, experiential. This unique combination of skills, as well as an appetite for learning new things has allowed her to transition easily between clients, departments and projects. Moreover, it has shaped her into a channel agnostic Creative Director who is just as strategically minded as she is creatively sound. Her work has been recognized at Cannes, ADC, One Show, Cassies, CMA, ADCC, Marketing, Coupe and Applied Arts. She’s been featured in Lüzers Archive, Fast Company, BuzzFeed, Wired and Devour. Since joining Mosaic just four short years ago, the agency has jumped 43 spots in the Creative Rankings and in 2018 had its most winningest year worldwide.

Adam Woodhouse
Creative Director
Bleublancrouge

Adam Woodhouse is an award-winning design leader who is responsible for spearheading a multitude of industry-shaping campaigns and projects. Originally from London, England but now firmly set in Toronto, CA - Woodhouse has experience working alongside companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Heineken, MLSE and AT&T. Woodhouse has extensive industry experience delivering world-class Mobile Apps, thought provoking digital campaigns with engaging interactive experiences. 

Cass Zawadowski
VP, Executive Creative Director
Wunderman

Cass Zawadowski hails from Toronto, where she began her career 15+ years ago, but has also spent time working Internationally at agencies in NYC and Europe (Germany), and even Asia (Singapore and Seoul). She’s had the fortunate opportunity to work on a wide range of brands and categories, with heavy experience across the retail (IKEA) beauty (Maybelline), consumer packaged goods (P&G), and automotive (Ford, Toyota, Smart). She's currently VP, Executive Creative Director for Wunderman, Canada, overseeing Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Outside of work, she’s an avid traveler (28 countries and counting), an active 3% participant, and a Board of Directors Member with two non-profits: Photographers Without Borders and Champions Against Bullying.

Leah Zukowski
Creative Director
Flipp

Steve Mykolyn
Partner
Castor Design

Living the dream.

Steve Mykolyn is the former CCO of TAXI, an advertising agency of some note. Currently, Steve is a partner in Castor, a Canadian design firm. You can buy their stuff here: castordesign.ca.

Steve also has a passion for books and film. In 1997, he wrote and directed El Dia La Noche Y Los Muertos, an award-winning documentary about Mexico’s Day of the Dead festival.

In 2008, he was co-curator of the Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for Architecture.

He is a past board member of both The One Show and the D&AD. He has some awards.

Michelle Czukar
Senior Editor
Rooster Post Production

Michelle Czukar is one of the top television commercial editors in Canada. She began her career editing music videos and was quickly regarded as Canada’s premier music video editor. Her talent has seen her collaborate with renowned director Floria Sigismondi on a wide range of projects, from Marilyn Manson, Tricky, and The Cure, to the legendary David Bowie.

Michelle’s exceptional editorial talent in the music video world was soon recognized by Canadian advertising agencies. Today, she is regarded as one of the top ‘go-to’ editors in the Toronto market. Michelle has collaborated on many iconic Canadian brands ranging from HBC and Bell, to Sick Kids and Air Canada. She has enjoyed working relationships and many repeat commercial projects with directors such as Adhoc Content’s Chris Sargent, Scouts Honour director Mark Zibert, and Soft Citizen’s The Perlorian Brothers. Michelle has won many

International awards including a Gold Lion for agency Zig and Unilever brand Vim for ‘Prison Visitor’. She also has the distinction of having more work featured on the Shots International reel than any other Canadian editor.

Michelle continues to produce award-winning work. Most recently, her work was recognized at the 2018 Applied Arts Awards for Leo Burnett and Canadian Tire’s “First Skate” directed by Mark Malloy and in NYC’s 2016 One Show in the craft editing category for her editorial contribution on Sick Kids “Better Tomorrows” for JWT, directed by Mark Zibert.

Pascal Desjardins
Sound Designer
Apollo Studios

Pascal Desjardins has more than 20 years of experience in the field of sound engineering. After working on more than 90 music albums and overseeing the dubbing of more than 300 films, he has focused his career on sound post-production for advertising at Apollo Studios in Montreal. He is the recipient of the 2018 Marketing Award in Sound Design, along with Yan Dal Santo, for their work with the David Lynch Foundation’s “Sound of Trauma”. A passionate lover and collector of contemporary art, Pascal Desjardins also devotes part of his time to helping artists realize all aspects of sound for their audio visual works.

Cynthia Heyd
Founder, Executive Producer
HeydSaffer

Cynthia is an innovative production leader with more than 25 years experience in the advertising industry working with TV, digital, radio, web content, and new media projects. She has driven production evolution in management roles at BBDO, Y&R, CBC, and TAXI Canada.

She launched Heyd & Seek Inc. in January 2015 in response to the ever- changing marketing landscape. In 2018 Heyd & Seek merged with Touchpoint Films to found HeydSaffer working with brands and agencies to determine how best to create content for all mediums. HeydSaffer structures and negotiates only the team members required in order to deliver compelling content at a price point that allows clients to deliver more for their budget.

Cynthia is passionate about tackling seemingly impossible projects. Whether embarking into an unknown challenge or a simple ask, her production management and creative problem solving, paired with her extensive freelance resources, enables her to customize and lead the best team for any project.

Her numerous awards include commendations from Cannes, The One Show, The Art Director Annual Awards, and more.

Kelsey Horne
Executive Creative Director
TAXI

Kelsey has brought a proven passion and dedication to his craft for over 15 years. He has created strategic world-class work at various top-tier agencies from around the world for brands such as United Way, Black Lives Matter, Subway, WestJet, YWCA, WWF, and Rethink Breast Cancer. Kelsey’s work has been consistently awarded internationally by The One Show, D&AD, Cannes, Clio Awards, Communication Arts, The Art Director’s Club of New York, Archive Magazine and almost every show in Canada including The Advertising Design Club of Canada, Cassies, Marketing Awards, and Applied Arts.

Along with industry recognition his work has been covered by various media outlets such as BuzzFeed, Chicago Tribune, Mashable, Uproxx, CBS, Bored Panda, Metro UK, Huffington Post, CBC News, The National Post, The Toronto Star. Throughout his career, Kelsey’ strategic and collaborative approach has helped build and grow brands from the small and local to the big and national.

Janet Kestin
Co-Founder, Partner
Swim Program

Janet Kestin is co-founder of Swim, a leadership lab for top creative companies, including ad Droga5, 72and Sunny, Bruce Mau Design and Refinery 29.

Janet was Co-Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Toronto with Swim partner, Nancy Vonk, for 13 years. Their teams delivered work like Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and Diamond Shreddies, and garnered recognition including One Club and D&AD pencils, Grand Clio and two Cannes Grand Prix. Janet has judged The One Show, D&AD, Cannes and many others. She was the foreman of the D&AD ‘Writing for Advertising’ jury in 2014 and is one of only 6 women whose work appears in D&AD’sThe Copy Book: How some of the best advertising writers in the world write their advertising. Sad, but true.

In 2012, Janet and Nancy were on Advertising Age Magazine's 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising list, and named among Creativity magazine’s Top 50 Most Creative People of ‘08. Authors ofPick Me, a staple in advertising schools from Texas to Turkey, their 2014 HarperCollins release,Darling, You Can’t Do Both (And Other Noise To Ignore On Your Way Up)was recently listed among Inc Magazine’s “top 60 books on leadership”. Janet speaks at companies, schools and organizations around the world seeking new ideas for advancing women's success.  In ‘16, Janet helped design the creative leadership stream at Factry, the ‘school of creativity sciences’, founded by Sid Lee leaders.

Alan Madill
Founder, Creative
Good & Ready

Alan Madill is the co-Founder and Creative at Good&Ready. He has  been producing iconic ideas for the world’s leading brands for more than two decades. Before creating Good&Ready he co-founded an agency called Juniper Park that grew from four to 140 employees in 10 short years. He’s won many awards but what drives him is a need to create work that consumers love and creates value for companies. Alan studied design and advertising at OCAD University, where he has also lectured. He loves new experiences and immersing himself into different cultures. His curiosity has taken him trekking deep into the jungle to sailing the Atlantic Ocean. When not at work he is busy raising his two children with his partner Samantha.

Nikki Ormerod
Photographer, Director
Westside Studio

Nikki is a photographer and director based in Toronto, Canada.

She is represented by Westside Studio for her stills and motion work and has been working at Canada’s largest commercial photography studio for over 10 years.

It is Nikki’s unique ability to connect with her subjects and people in general that truly sets her apart from other photographers. She understands the give/take relationship between photographer and subject enabling her to truly capture the moments that other photographers often miss. She embraces the option to do something different and unexpected and believes in capturing pure and honest moments. Nikki loves to collaborate with people and dis driven by the need to make a better photograph tomorrow than she did yesterday.

Marka Rankovic
Editor
Married To Giants

Marka Rankovic has been working as an editor for nearly 15 years. The first decade of his career was in Montreal, where he worked on a wide range of commercials, music videos and long format.

Three years ago, Marka moved to Toronto and has been editing countless brands including Adidas, West Jet, Mastercard, Tangerine, Cirque du Soleil, Starbucks and Mitsubishi. His recent work for the Sick Kids VS campaign garnered much attention and praise, and was one of the most rewarding and emotional experiences of his career. He has won several awards including Cannes Lions, Clio, Marketing Awards and an LIA in Editing Craft. Marka is fluent in both English and French - of course!

Ted Rosnick
Creative Director
Vapor RMW

Yael Staav
Director
Animals/Furlined

A combined passion for film and music led first led Yael to photography and then naturally to directing Music Videos. After initially splitting her post-grad time between Toronto and London, she went on to direct music videos for many of Canada’s exploding indie bands. Her music video work gained her attention of advertising executives and commercial work followed soon after.

She won her first Yong Guns Medal right out of the gate and was featured in the ‘Shoot’ New Directors reel, Shoot New Directors showcase and won a Bronze Lion at the Cannes advertising fest in 2005, making her the first Canadian woman to win a medal in Cannes.

The rest of the world was introduced to Yael on the strength of the Cannes Grand Prix-winning Dove “Evolution”, an online film that deconstructed, frame by frame, the beauty myth.

Her first foray in to narrative short films ‘Sam’s Formalwear’ premiered at the Toronto Film Fest.  Her 2^nd film, Yael’s poignant and emotional interpretation of Dallas Clayton’s celebrate storybook, An Awesome Book of Love, which garnered immediate attention with 300,000 views out of the gate and a Vimeo ‘Staff pick’ to follow.

Directing the entire second season of Baroness Von Sketch (CBC/IFC) was Yael’s debut as a TV director and a Canadian Screen Directing award was soon to follow.  She recently picked up the 2018 DGC award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series for that same show.

She is currently wrapping up 3 episodes for CBC’s Workin’ Moms and is continuing to tell shorter stories in advertising-land.

David Whiteson
Senior VFX Artist
Alter Ego

David got the advertising bug at the tender age of 16 when he was editor and cameraman for Cogeco, and the rest as they say is history. When he was only 20 years old he was named the youngest compositor in the world by Playback Magazine. Maclean’s Magazine gave the world a heads up that David Whiteson was the “Graduate to Watch Out For”. After spending 20 years honing his craft and working on massive international and national campaigns alike, David has a deep wealth of talent from visual effects, design, creative direction, compositing, and on set supervision. Everything he has touched he has left an undeniable imprint on (and a tell tale flare or two).

Vanessa Eckstein
Founder, Creative Director
Blok Design

Known for her passion for taking on initiatives that blend cultural awareness, humanity and a love of art to advance society and business alike, Vanessa’s experiences living and working in Buenos Aires, LA, New York, Mexico City and Toronto have given Blok a unique international perspective that has been recognized and awarded around the world. Her experience includes top global brands such as Nike, Pepsi, Nestle, and the Museum of Modern Art Miami, among many others. Vanessa’s work has been exhibited in countries from Japan to Germany, most recently at the Bienal Iberamericanna de Diseño, Spain. Her work is represented in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum as well as the Library of Congress, Washington. Vanessa holds an MFA from the Art Centre of Pasadena.

Stüssy Tschudin
Principal, Creative Director 
Forge Media + Design

Marie-Elaine Benoit
Creative Director
Sid Lee

At Sid Lee since 2002, Marie-Elaine is our branding expert and one of our main pillars. Her projects have received international recognition on several occasions, leading her to being chosen for the design jury at Cannes in 2017. She loves to surround herself with people who are as passionate as her about creating inspiring brand images and experiences. Full of contagious good humour, she’s one of those people who sees nothing but solutions to the challenges she faces.

Ryan Booth
Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Ryan is an internationally recognized multi-disciplined graphic designer. Over the past 18 years, he has been a member of a handful of award-winning creative teams, and his work spans brand identity programs, packaging, interior design, advertising and photography. Ryan is currently Design Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo, named Strategy Magazine’s Design Agency of the Year for 2018.

Nathalie Cusson
Creative Director, Head of Design
Juniper Park\TBWA

Nathalie Cusson is a multidisciplinary Creative Director with 20 years in the Advertising and Design industries. She brings extensive hands-on experience in corporate identity, branding design, editorial design, and art direction, as well as retail environment design, motion and film making.

She’s worked in Toronto and Montreal and has demonstrated the ability to lead and inspire diverse teams of professionals across markets. 

On her vision of design today:

"We live in a world that is in constant movement. I believe that modern design has to reflect that movement, in all of its forms, whether it is static or in motion."

She’s perfectly bilingual (French + English), and her knowledge and experience of the fashion, beauty, luxury and travel industries as well as her wide network of International creative contributors, gives her a unique vision in developing innovative visual brand strategy across all communication platforms.

She has done work for agencies such as TAXI, BBDO, Zulu Alpha Kilo, Juniper Park (now JPTBWA), Rogers Publications and Bookmark Content, and has worked on many iconic Canadian brands, including; LCBO, Rethink Breast Cancer, Air Canada’s enRoute, Fairmont Hotel & Resorts and Telus.

Nathalie’s work has been recognized through many awards, from organizations like Applied Arts, Communication Arts, the National Magazine Awards (14 prizes), Magnum Opus Award, the Pearl Awards, P&G Beauty awards, Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards, AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and the Advertising & Design Club of Canada.

Also a film director, Nathalie is part of the film directors collective Bent Design Lab, based in Portland, Oregon. Her film work has been featured on NOWNESS, was awarded Vimeo Staff Pick and was nominated in short film festivals in Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami.

Barbara Jacques
Creative Director, Branding & Design
Cossette

Barbara is a reference in design and branding for her outstanding contributions to her clients’ brand images. With decades of experience in the industry, Barbara inspires the teams she leads to produce their very best work, bringing to life Cossette’s creative philosophy and vision. No matter the size, scope or complexity of the project, she understands how to get to the heart of what matters, delivering work that is beautiful in its simplicity and always engaging.

Bringing a collaborative, team-spirited approach to every project, Barbara elevates brand
communications by thoughtfully leveraging the skills and expertise of her multidisciplinary team. Throughout her 30-year career, she has stood out for her creative thinking, working on the branding of major national and international clients, including Énergir, Lolë, Bell Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint, Ministère du Tourisme du Québec, the Canadian Red Cross, the SAQ - Société des alcools du Québec and BDC, just to name a few. Most of all, Barbara enjoys working on cultural and humanitarian projects, including those for the McCord Museum, Espace pour la vie, Théâtre Espace Go, Enablis, and Hi - Humanity & Inclusion.

Megan Oldfield
Creative Director
Field Design Office

Megan Oldfield is the Field behind Design Office. She has worked with some truly amazing people and partnered with companies as passionate about their brand as she is about design. 

She has just finished a year long sabbatical to work on self-initiated projects with a brief interval at Sagmeister & Walsh, New York and is back working in Toronto. She brings her unique perspective and diverse expertise in creative direction, strategy, design and production to implement branding, packaging, film titling, wayfinding and exhibition design. She has partnered with clients in the entertainment and music industries, arts and culture, corporate sector and hospitality–most notably the development of the Drake brand of properties, recently rebranding the flagship Drake Hotel and the branding and identity systems, wayfinding, packaging for Drake One Fifty, Devonshire and Commissary.

She has previously worked at Bruce Mau, EMI Music Canada and as an educator at Sheridan / UofT Mississauga Art and Art History Program where she currently teaches fourth year design studio. Megan is a passionate design advocate and is currently in her second term on the Board of Directors of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers RGD.

Fidel Peña
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Underline Studio

Fidel is a creative director and co-founder of Underline Studio. His projects at Underline have included identity and branding for the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Universities Canada and Harvard Medical School and campaigns and publications for Google, UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, and the National Gallery of Canada. Fidel’s work has received numerous accolades from across Canada, the US and Europe, and he has lectured on design topics in Spain, Mexico and Canada. He was born in El Salvador, is the former president of the Advertising and Design Club of Canada and is currently a board member of Prefix ICA.

Peter Scott
Co-Founder, Principal
q30 Design

Peter is a co-founding principal of q30, where he acts as project lead, creative director, and mentor. Peter’s skills lie in untangling complicated problems, whether as the client point of contact or the creative director of immensely technical website builds and branding projects. He knows his way around and through complex projects with multiple moving parts, and uses those skills to build long-term partnerships with clients in the public and private sector, including the TD Bank Group, Independent Electricity System Operator, the Ontario Energy Board and the Ontario Hospital Association. An honours graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University and an RGD (Registered Graphic Designer). Peter’s been active in the design community since the start of his career and remains committed to collaborative design.

Lisa Greenberg
CCO
Leo Burnett

Lisa is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top Creative Directors and influential advertising and design talents. After honing her craft at agencies in South Africa and Canada, she joined Leo Burnett in 2010 where she transformed the agency with her creative leadership.

Under her leadership, Leo Burnett Toronto has been named Canada’s Design Agency of the Year, 4 of the last 6 years. Her work has been recognized in virtually every national and international award show across multiple disciplines. Along the way, she has judged top international awards shows including Cannes, The One Show & D&AD.

Lisa sees inspiration and opportunity everywhere. Her love of design has her designing products in her spare time, from foot files to maple syrup to a line of ceramics.

Barbara Woolley
Partner
Hambly & Woolley

As a founding partner of Hambly & Woolley, Barb oversees communications projects, with a specialty in publication design, for clients in the public and private sectors, including the University of Toronto, CIFAR, Donald Ellis Gallery and Vancouver General Hospital. For over 19 years, she art directed and co-designed “harry” magazine for Harry Rosen menswear. Barb is a graduate of OCAD University, a former chair of the Advertising & Design Club of Canada and a speaker at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, York University and many other design associations. A multiple award-winning designer, she has taught at OCAD University and serves on numerous design juries.

Marvi Yap
Co-Founder, Partner
AV Communications

Marvi steers the creative, strategic, and innovative direction of AV Communications, the marketing agency that took the top spot in the multicultural space in Strategy’s Creative Report Card for 2018.

Born in the Philippines, Marvi began her advertising career while working for Foote, Cone and Belding (Manila). Upon moving to Canada, she observed that the current methods of advertising failed to take advantage of the opportunity to address and engage the highly diverse population of the country. Equipped with a strategic vision—and emboldened by an entrepreneurial spirit—Marvi became one of two founders of AV Communications, an agency that offered turnkey solutions for advertisers to reach multicultural consumers.

Now in its fifteenth year, the agency’s roster of clients includes some of the world’s most recognisable brands, including BMW, Western Union, Randstad, and Clinique. Under Marvi’s creative direction, the agency’s campaigns continue to be recognised by mainstream advertising award-giving organisations such as Strategy, the Cassies, and the Shorty Social Good.

Marvi’s advocacy is evident in her steadfast commitment to elevate the standards of multicultural advertising, and that entails more than just keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry. Marvi has the depth and breadth of experience to identify the strategic value of having the worlds of mainstream advertising and multicultural marketing intersect in ways that are authentic and meaningful. This has been the cornerstone of her well-recognised contributions to the industry.

Timothy Yip
Managing Director
Maple Diversity Communications

Tim leads his agency team at Maple Diversity Communications. With over 15 years of B2B and B2C marketing experience, Tim has led marketing teams at Canada Post, PC Financial and Scotiabank. On the agency side, Tim developed innovative ways for Canadian Brands to reach new Canadians, while introducing unique engagement campaigns on a National scale. Tim's passion for ethnic advertising has made him an industry leader and innovator.

Jessica Borges
Vice President Creative
Dyversity Communication Inc.

Vice President Creative, Jessica is always buzzing with ideas, and is valued for her international experience in creative strategy, brand development, client management, and her ability to inspire creative excitement in her teams.

A native of India, where she was Associate Creative Director at McCann (handling brands like Coca-Cola, L’Oreal and HSBC), Jessica followed her love for travel to Muscat and Dubai, where she worked as Creative Director at Y&R (on clients like Shell and Hyundai) , and also started her own creative shop Blue Juice Communications, Dubai. She is currently Vice President Creative at Dyversity Communications, Toronto, where she uses her strong global ethnic insights and creative expertise, to help blue-chip clients like RBC, Canada Post, Unilever and OLG, successfully engage with a strongly growing base of audiences from across the world who have made Canada their home.

Her work has won at the Effies, New York Festivals, Cresta, Summit, Mark, Namic, Abbies and CAG. Her short stories have been published in anthologies ‘Canadian Voices’ and ‘Indian Voices’. Her novella won her a Montblanc/Emirates Woman Novella Writing Award. She was also a ‘Dancing Bird’ jewelry-designing finalist in Dubai.

Jessica was invited to speak at the Toronto Public Library during Asian Heritage Month, has conducted ‘creative writing’, ‘media literacy’, and ‘interactive storytelling’ workshops in Toronto schools, and been a judge and panelist at ethnic conferences and the Marketing Awards. 

A Masters in English Literature, she loves exploring programs with Ladies Learning Code, and is currently completing a Digital Marketing & Social Media Strategy program at the University of Toronto, even as she works on her novel and book of children's short stories.

Ishan Ghosh
CEO & Partner
Barrett and Welsh

As CEO and Partner at Barrett and Welsh, Ishan leads a team of Idea Generators. Ideas that help build our clients businesses. Ideas that engage and change the game in the markets that its clients operate in and which give them the cutting edge.

As a marketing entrepreneur for two decades and having worked in network agencies in several markets around the world, Ishan guides the agency’s clients, to recognize the relevance and criticality for marketers to engage the Diversity and Inclusion market in Canada and helps them see the limitless business opportunities that it brings.
Ishan also lectures in Branding and Integrated Marketing Communications at the Rotman Business School of Management, University of Toronto, as part of the MBA and Commerce programs. He is a frequent speaker at several forums such as the Canadian Institute, Conference Board of Canada, The Indo- Canadian Chamber of Commerce, etc and conducts workshops on Consumer Marketing and Insights for several organizations. He is also a frequent commentator in many journals in the marketing industry and an occasional columnist in Strategy Magazine, providing commentaries on branding. Ishan is a founding advisory board member of Canada’s Next Top Ad Executive, a program created 8 years ago as a bridge between academia and the advertising industry.

Ishan’s 30+ year career has spanned branding and advertising companies such as JWT, Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett and Vickers & Benson. He has been involved in the marketing and development of several international brands such as McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Bata, Holiday Inn, P&G brands, Unilever brands, TD Canada Trust and the Bank of Montreal.

Ambereen Jahangir
CEO
DV8 Communications

Ambreen has over 25 years of experience in marketing, advertising and financial industries where she has built a solid reputation for developing new businesses and for providing personalized service and strategic solutions.

Ambereen shapes the business vision of DV8 with extensive experience in marketing-advertising and the financial field. She has taken creativity to a new height with innovative, integrated campaigns that have brought accolades for both herself and the team. An astute strategist with expertise in multicultural marketing, Ambereen has helped create favorable results for brands including like Mitsubishi Canada, Nissan Canada, Infiniti Canada, Kraft, Maple Leaf Foods, Food Basics, Sobeys, FreshCo, Dempster’s, La Vie En Rose, Maybelline, Goodlife Fitness and more.

Before starting DV8, Ambereen had worked with various International Financial Institutions like Merrill Lynch and Union Bank of Switzerland as Head of International Markets. Throughout these pursuits, she has travelled all across the globe spending time immersing herself in different cultures— she has lived and worked in the USA, UK, Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Ambereen is a true believer in the moral, spiritual, and ethical development of diverse communities and is actively involved in supporting various social and charitable causes as well. Not just only responsible for leading the company’s efforts to expand understanding of the effects of Ethnic marketing & advertising, she also likes to develop new innovative fusion healthy recipes and travels around the world with her family.

Milena Marques-Zachariah
CEO/Creative Director
Out Of My Mind

With over 20 years in multi-national advertising in India, Dubai and Canada, MILENA MARQUES-ZACHARIAH has gained critical international experience in creating and building brands. She is a Creative Consultant who runs her own creative shop, OUT OF MY MIND.  She has focused on the South Asian and ethnic markets since immigrating to Canada two decades ago.  Her sharp insights and thorough knowledge of the multi-cultural markets have led to some ground-breaking advertising in the financial, telecommunications and food industries. This valuable exposure came in handy when she conceived and launched Radio Mango, six years ago – the first and only Konkani language broadcast in North America.

She has worked as Creative Director and Multicultural Communications Specialist with leading agencies in Toronto, helping major national and international brands relate to their consumers by aligning their messages to ethnic markets. She has assisted companies to launch products and services to this emerging market, by helping them understand the importance and nuances of cultural connect.

Creative writing is her chief passion. She has made occasional forays into journalism with her column ‘Confessions of an Immigrant Housewife’ in a leading South Asian newspaper, with sporadic contributions to various anthologies. She loves wearing an apron over her business suit to indulge in her other creative pursuit: Cooking. Yoga is her favourite four letter word.

Viraj Ponkshe
Creative Director
Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing & Advertising Inc.

Viraj Ponkshe’s advertising journey started 26 years ago in Mumbai (India) after graduating from the prestigious J.J School of Arts, Mumbai. 

After working for JWT- Mumbai as a Creative Supervisor on brands like Unilever, De Beers, Air India, PepsiCo etc., Viraj joined the BBDO group and was placed as a Creative Director in Cairo- Egypt, where he worked on various multinational brands like PepsiCo, Henkel, DaimlerChrylser etc., for North and Central Africa, and also for the European market for 5 years.

Thereafter he was transferred to BBDO Kuwait where he headed the creative team, producing award-winning work for the next 4 years. He then moved to Dentsu Cairo as Executive Creative Director, where he pitched and won business like Coca-Cola (CSR) across 14 countries.

At present, Viraj works in Toronto, Canada as Creative Director with Ethnicity Matters Multicultural Marketing and Advertising - Canada’s leading authority in multicultural communications handling Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Telus Mobile, Canada Dry, Kruger, Public Mobile, CAA among others. Prior to this, he was Creative Director with another multicultural ad agency in Toronto handling RBC, Unilever, PepsiCo, OLG, Bell Canada, Nestle, WelcomePack Canada etc.

His creative awards haul include Gold, Silver, Bronze and Finalist status in London International Awards, Cresta International Awards, MarCom Awards, Dubai Lynx, Mena Cristal, Summit International, Marketing Awards - Canada, International Advertising Association -IAA (Egypt and Kuwait chapters), A&M India, to name a few. His work has also featured in Lürzer’s Int'l Archive and has also received a National Diploma Certificate at Cannes Lions.

Besides advertising, he also works on contemporary creations on canvas in his innovative ‘ZapInFusion’ style, and has showcased his work at The Artist Project Toronto, Le Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, Montreux Art Gallery Contemporary Art Fair in Switzerland, and the U.S.

Michael Wong
Art Director
Hamazaki Wong Marketing Group

Michael has many passions — among them creativity, design, and coffee in varying orders of importance depending on the time of day. Michael is a seeker of knowledge and creativity in all its forms, looking to see how these elements fit into and contribute to the fabric of the world around him — and sharing these discoveries with others. But it’s in the area of art and design that he finds his expression in practice. His incessant doodling, tattoo drawing and visual curiosity while growing up would inevitably lead him to his career based in art.

At Hamazaki Wong, he is a veteran creative, having worked on virtually all of their client assignments over the past decade and a half. You name a client category, he’s likely worked on it and won awards and accolades in the process. Naturally, he keeps abreast of design, branding, advertising trends and solutions to keep him nimble and ahead of the young people around him! Michael originally hails from Hong Kong where he worked on some of the largest global brands in airlines, financial services, and retail. Now, about that other passion: coffee. He often muses, ‘What makes coffee so good, and why does it often smell better than it tastes? How do I make my coffee better?’ The creative exploration continues…

Selina Lim
Art Director
Captus Advertising Ltd

Born in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver in her teenage years, Selina has always had a passion for drawing and arts. As a child, she could be seen in front of the computer doodling on the good old Microsoft Paint in between her weekly drawing classes. After finishing a psychology degree in Simon Fraser University, her passion took her to Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, where she completed a degree in communication design. Selina then began her artistic career as an in-house graphic designer in a non-profit organization before joining Captus Advertising as an art director.

Working in Captus has not only offered her the opportunity to continue to doodle on the computer, but she also gets to be involved in many unique projects  that allow her to apply her Asian background and western upbringing. She is also able to utilize her knowledge in psychology, which provides her with an insight into human perception and behavior, in her work. Along with her amazing team at Captus, she was fortunate enough to be recognized with awards for her work in the multicultural marketing sector.

Ramesh Nilakantan
Vice President, Client Services
Monsoon Communications

Ramesh started his advertising career in India and after two decades, moved to Dubai and then Canada. He’s worked with some of the world’s most respected agencies – BBDO, Lowe & Partners, McCann Erickson and Publicis – developing communications for brands like Coca-Cola, SONY, Vodafone, Henkel and BMW.

A strong strategic thinker, Ramesh was part of the team that won India’s first award at Cannes, and has headed agency teams in Canada that have consistently won Marketing Awards for creative excellence in multicultural communications. Ramesh has also been a judge at the CMA awards and a frequent speaker at multicultural conferences and seminars in Toronto.