2020 Jury

Marilou Aubin
Partner, VP, Executive Creative Director
lg2

With more than 18 years of experience in advertising and digital communication, Marilou is always searching for new ways to engage consumers and express brand purposes in a unique way. Throughout her career, she has crafted 50 award-winning projects (totaling 150 prizes) which have been praised locally and internationally (Cannes Lions, The One Show, Communication Arts, Webby awards).
 
In 2009, she joined AgênciaClick in São Paulo, where she worked on Philips and Fiat. As a Creative Director at lg2 since 2011, Marilou has been a driving force behind key accounts (QuébecOriginal, Tourisme Montréal, the SAAQ, Hydro-Québec, Desjardins and Bell) which has helped lg2 to become Canada’s most awarded agency and the largest independent creative agency in the country.
 
In 2019, she was the first female president of the Créa, Quebec’s most prestigious advertising awards, she sat on the jury for the CLIOs and she won a scholarship to attend the Women Transforming Leadership program at Saïd Business School, Oxford.

David Rosenberg
Chief Creative Officer and Partner
Bensimon Byrne

David Rosenberg joined Bensimon Byrne in October 2000, and became a Partner in 2007 after a management-led buyback restored the firm to its independent roots. His goal is to help make the Bensimon Byrne the best place to work in Canada - famous in equal measure for both the quality of its product and the quality of its environment.

Trained as a writer, David has rebranded The Canadian Football League, helped create the “You’re Richer Than You Think” campaign for Scotiabank, launched Joe Fresh for Loblaw Co.’s, created the CBC’s 2018 Winter Olympic thematic, and has won hundreds of industry awards for his work on Scotiabank, Nike, IKEA, McDonald’s, Pro-Line, Stupid.ca, Bombardier, Lexus and the Royal Ontario Museum. He has worked on Liberal political campaigns both federally and provincially, producing award-winning creative for Justin Trudeau’s historic climb from 3rd place to the Prime Ministership in 2015, with a majority government. He delivered this story at The 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in a keynote entitled “How Risk Taking Ads Helped Trudeau Win.”

David is married and has 3 lovely children who have all gone into the arts. He’ll be working until he’s 108.

Nadia Beale
Senior Vice President
MSLGROUP

Nadia is the core architect of the agency's award-winning consumer brands portfolio—bringing home the hardware as recently as May 2019 from NYC for Canadian Agency of the Year at the North American Sabre Awards.
As a strategist and innovator, she’s been at the forefront of influencer marketing and instrumental in pioneering and innovating across this fast-growing part of MSL’s business for some of the world’s most exciting and iconic brands. From Pampers to Pantene, Nadia has worked to reshape the role of PR and social media at the agency and for our Brand partners, with campaigns that breakthrough by converting consumers on digital platforms.
In addition, in 2018 Nadia conceived of and launched M+, MSL proprietary approach to delivering content with precision across the various stages of the consumer decision journey.
She manages a talented team of over 30 Communications professionals and take a very active role in mentorship, and nurturing a culture of collaboration and high performance at MSL.

Cher Campbell
Executive Creative Director
john st.

Cher’s journey to becoming an executive creative director at john st. has been, quite literally, a journey.

In her career, she has worked around the world, having worked in Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Singapore, Hong Kong and Auckland. From FCB and TBWA to BBDO, her creativity and approach are both informed by her global experience and upbringing.

Never one to take herself too seriously, she loves a good practical joke.

Heather Chambers
Senior Vice President, Creative Director
Leo Burnett & Woven Collective

Heather Chambers’ current assignment is as Chief Creative Officer for our Woven Collective Office in New York.  She has over 20 years' experience working in several Multinational agencies. Prior to her current assignment, she has spent 15 years at Leo Burnett in Toronto as SVP Creative Director on their North American and Global Procter and Gamble businesses. 

Working on large scale CPG businesses, Heather appreciates the importance of simple, clear communication, collaboration and original creative thinking.

Previous clients include:  Molson Breweries, Vincor Wines, Smith Kline, TD Bank, Ford Canada, Kellogg’s, Colgate-Palmolive, HP foods and Kraft.

Heather’s work has been recognized at Cannes, The One Show, Clios, London International Awards, Marketing, Marketing Awards, The Bessies, Art Directors Show Applied Arts, The Cassies and North American Effies.

Jenny Glover
Executive Creative Director
Juniper Park\TBWA

In 1996 Jenny completed her law degree and to the delight of her parents, got a job as a lowly paid copywriter.

After spending 20 years working in South Africa she moved to Toronto and is currently peddling her particular brand of darkness as an Executive Creative Director at Juniper Park\TBWA.

As a writer, she has won metal at international awards over 50 times. This includes a total of 10 gold Cannes Lions, a Cannes Grand Prix and 15 D&AD pencils, including 5 yellows.

Jenny cofounded Open Chair, the South African industry gender equity initiative. In 2014 she was invited to present a master class on her award-winning Mercedes-Benz campaigns at the Cannes Lions festival.  She has judged on numerous occasions at Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio’s and Dubai Lynx and was a jury president at D&AD in 2017.

Her finest achievements are daughters, Grace (6) and Ivy (4), who help her maintain her incredibly chic under-eye rings. 

Jeff Hilts
CCO
FCB Toronto

An award-winning Chief Creative Officer, Jeffrey’s passion for creative thinking along with an unwavering commitment to his craft has helped shape his multi-disciplinary career. Jeffrey’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally by One Show, D&AD, CLIOS, Communication Arts, LIA’s, Effie Awards, and Cannes. During his time at FCB Toronto, the agency has been named Strategy’s Digital Agency of the Year in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. FCB was also the most awarded Canadian agency in Cannes for 2017 - bringing home 10 Cannes Lions for its “Canadian Down Syndrome Answers” campaign. Most recently, Jeffrey was recognized as one of Toronto’s leading brand stars in 2018 by Adweek.

Joel Holtby
Creative Director & Partner
Rethink

Joel Holtby is a Creative director from Toronto, during his career so far he has been name the Top Art Director in Canada by Strategy’s Creative Report Card as well as Top 30 under 30 by Marketing Magazine. In less than 3 years after joining Rethink - Canada’s largest national independent agency, he was made a Partner & Creative Director at the age of 28. Making him the youngest in the firm’s history. There, he helped grow a global roster of brands that now includes IKEA, Molson Coors, WestJet and Kraft Heinz.

Joel has been behind some of the most awarded Canadian work of the last decade. He has taken home over 100 national/international industry awards, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, Lia and EPICA. Joel’s work has been featured by every major news outlet including CNN, Time Magazine and The New York Post.  For the Sochi Olympic, Joel created what has been called the “most viral PSA in Canadian history” for Gay rights. Additionally his work has resulted in two Guinness World Records, the highest elevation hockey rink ever built, another on top of a skyscraper, two separate campaigns featured on Jimmy Kimmel on the same night, and in a declining beer market, his world traveling Passport Beer Fridge led to Molson Coors’ first share increase in 10 years. 

In 2019, Joel ushered in IKEA’s shift to sustainability by reimagining the famous 2002 Spike Jonze masterpiece “Lamp” with the “Lamp 2” campaign. He also launched The IKEA Climate Change Effect, where stores demonstrated the effects of climate change by allowing temperatures to rise to predicted levels. The campaigns led to the highest brand equity scores in IKEA Canada’s history. For Greenpeace, Joel’s Stop Sucking plastic straw campaign was translated into more than 15 languages around the world. He followed that by hacking the Stories function on Instagram; repurposing the stickers feature to create the first global plastic straw protest on Instagram. The stickers have been viewed over 3.5 million times. Most recently, Joel was behind Ka’Wine and Dine, where businesses offered NBA star Kawhi Leonard free food for life. Kawhi was even offered a multi-million dollar condo and the campaign became one of the biggest stories of the NBA Playoffs.

Karen Howe
Founder
The Township

Karen Howe is a globally-awarded creative director, speaker and Cannes Lions Advisory Board Member.  She decodes on trends in creativity, technology and culture for audiences across the world. Karen is also a frequent industry commentator. As one few female creative directors in the world, Karen is a strong champion of women in senior industry roles.

Brigitte Ledermann
Senior Copywriter & ACD
Wunderman Thompson Montreal

With unwavering passion for communication and a fondness for strategy, Brigitte has been a stable presence in Quebec’s advertising industry for the last 20 years. Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson, Brigitte held the role of Copywriter at Cossette, receiving a number of honours. Today, she leads, directs and plays an active role in the agency’s day-to-day work.

Dean Lee
Executive Creative Director
DDB Canada

Dean is the Executive Creative Director of DDB Vancouver where he helps guide the creative product of cross-disciplined teams. With over 30 years of experience, he has helped develop effective marketing solutions for a wide range of clients including Canadian Tourism Commission, Rocky Mountaineer, BC Lottery Corporation, BCAA, BC Hydro, Netflix, McDonald’s, Pepsi Co, TELUS, Pacific Blue Cross, and BC Dairy to name a few. Historically, he’s been ranked as one of Canada’s most highly-rated creative leaders according to Strategy Magazine, including top honours in 2003 for art direction. His work has been recognized by many national and international advertising shows including Cannes, The One Show, Communication Arts, The Clios, D&AD, Marketing Awards and Applied Arts.  Beyond his day job, he co-chairs The James Lee Foundation to help aspiring creative talent break into the business and one day steal his job.

Jeff MacEachern
Chief Creative Officer
Arrivals + Departures

Jeff is the Chief Creative Officer at Arrivals + Departures, Strategy’s Small Agency of the Year, Bronze, after nearly twenty years working at other larger agencies such as TAXI, TBWA, GREY Worldwide.

For the past 2 decades, Jeff has worked hard to champion and develop breakthrough brand ideas and has fostered strong relationships with his peers and clients throughout the industry.

Jeff’s work has earned him global recognition across multiple shows Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios, The Art Directors Club of NY, Communication Arts, and many more.

His efforts to help create and grow some of Canada’s biggest and most loved brands, SkipTheDishes, Koodo Mobile, Kraft Heinz and MINI to name a few, prove that original and fresh creative generates strong results.

Sean Riley
Executive Creative Director
McCann Health

Sean began his advertising career in Canada in 1987. In the 12 years that followed, he worked as an illustrator, designer and art director in a variety of large and boutique agencies in Canada, the United States and Australia. Work ranged from fast cars to fast food and from sound design to sex shops.

Eventually though, Sean decided he was over conspicuous consumption and decided to make a positive difference in people’s lives instead.

Joining McCann Healthcare Australia in 1999, Sean worked across both Melbourne and Sydney – until 2007 when he took the position of creative director with our Singapore Hub.

Nine years later as ECD for Singapore and SEA, Sean moved to Tokyo as ECD for Japan and North Asia, where he stayed for close to 3 years. Now after 18 months bedding down the recently divested Singapore office, he is finally ready to return home to Canada.

Sean firmly believes that Health and Wellness is the true crucible for creativity and the only place in advertising where you can actually feel good about what you do for a living.

Terri Roberts
Creative Director
Ray

Terri has spent nearly two decades in advertising, selling everything from airlines to wieners. She’s helped to create successful campaigns for brands like Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, McCain, Maple Leaf, Irving Oil, Air Canada, Lamb’s Rum, Air Labrador, Opera on the Avalon, Quidi Vidi Beer, Cape Breton University, and Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the years, Terri has won a host of metal bits and pieces for her work in shows like LlA, Applied Arts, ADCC, Marketing, Extras, Crystals, Atomic, CASSIES, CMA, MIA, HSMAI, Promo, and ICE.

Sann Sava
VP & Creative Lead
Publicis

Sann oversees all creative work at Publicis Montréal, ensuring that the strategic needs of clients are in line with the agency's output.

Her role is to advise, support, and motivate her team and deliver superior quality projects. 

She has worked at the world's largest agencies in Canada and in Europe and contributed to the success of major clients including: Volkswagen, Pepsi, Adidas, L'Oréal, Bombardier and Nestlé.

With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics, training in the visual arts, and a master's in advertising, she is particularly adept at producing innovative campaigns balancing logic and creativity. Throughout her career she has amassed over 50 national and international awards.

Sann is a go-getter. At 12 years old, she landed her first job at a bakery. Since then she has not stopped pursuing goals with exceptional drive. Her passion for team sports makes her a natural when it comes to motivating staff. Meanwhile, her extensive background in the marketing industry gives her the insight to understand brand needs and contexts.

A mother of young children, Sann has put her foot to the pedal for charity over the past nine years at the 48-Hour-Ride, an annual cycling event organized by the Make-A-Wish® Quebec Foundation.

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.

Robyn Adelson
EVP, Strategy & Creative
Weber Shandwick

Robyn has a passion for those irresistible ideas that compel audiences to fall in love – or back in love - with brands. She is laser-focused on creating idea ecosystems that earn their way into people's lives. She is as passionate about the people behind the ideas and focuses on building teams that love working together.

Robyn joined Weber Shandwick in 2015 to build out and oversee the strategy and creative teams in Canada. She has created magnetic programs for McDonald's Canada, Sport Chek and Canadian Tire and has helped to transform the agency into a market leader within Canada. She's also a member of the agency's diversity, equity and inclusion team globally, and oversees the agency's internship program. 

Prior to Weber Shandwick, Robyn worked at Edelman  and Cohn & Wolfe leading and growing the creative and planning teams working with clients such as Michelin, Expedia, Indigo, Kraft Heinz and Swarovski. 

Robyn was born in Montreal, Quebec, grew up in Bradenton, Florida and is now happily in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and two cute kids. She also loves the Montreal Canadiens!

Amanda Alvaro
Co-Founder, President
Pomp and Circumstance

Amanda made the best decision of her career when she made the leap to entrepreneurship to launch award-winning Pomp & Circumstance PR in 2015. Since inception, P&C has been on a tremendous growth trajectory, attracting Tier A global clients and some of the very best talent in the business. From finance to fashion, tech to telco, auto to the arts, P&C was the only PR agency named ‘the one to watch’ in Strategy Magazine in 2017. Leading with creativity, P&C outperforms by using a powerful combination of media relations, experiential marketing, digital/social and events to make their brands stand above the competition.

When she's not at P&C, you can find her bantering politics as a regular political commentator on CBC TV's Power and Politics. She is a proud member of the two-time winning Trudeau election campaigns, founder of Artbound Charity, Chair of Rethink Breast Cancer and patron of the arts. Amanda can also be found on the speaker’s circuit, with topics ranging from PR, politics, entrepreneurship and women in business.

Leilah Ambrose
VP & Creative Director
Edelman Canada

Leilah began her career at the world-renowned design studio Bruce Mau Design, where she collaborated on the production of Massive Change – a project that included exhibition stops at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and Toronto’s AGO, as well as a book, a film and an educational program. She fell in love with storytelling at an ambitious scale and followed the path into advertising. For the next ten years, she developed cross-platform, award-winning work at shops including Tribal Worldwide, Grip Limited and TAXI for clients ranging from the Canadian Cancer Society, Subaru, Budweiser, KFC, J&J, TELUS and the United Way.

In 2014, she turned her curiosity towards new avenues, joining Edelman to help build its Earned Creative offering. Since that time, her small-but-mighty team has continued to joyfully kick down fences, winning business partnerships and recognition previously unheard of for a PR shop.

Leilah’s work has been featured in publications ranging from Time Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and the front page of Buzzfeed.

Noreel Asuro
Group Creative Director
The & Partnership

Noreel Asuro is an award-winning Group Creative Director leading the TELUS account. Throughout his 20 year career, he’s worked on national and global clients including Coca-Cola, Bell, Dove, P&G - Gain and Bounce, IKEA, Kellogg’s, Taco Bell, TD Bank, Nissan, and The Great Mardini Party Magician, to name a few. He has won numerous awards, but his favourite is having work featured on The World’s Funniest Commercials with Kevin Nealon, because it’s the only one his Mom understands.

Wendy Bairos
Group Head, PR
Diamond

Wendy is communications specialist and team leader with over 17 years of experience across tech, entertainment and consumer. As head of the newly introduced PR team at Diamond Marketing Group, she is helping the agency continue to expand its offering beyond experiential, digital and influencer to suit industry trends and client needs. Before that Wendy spent over a decade working at Google, where she was known for her creativity, consensus-building skills and ability to keep pace with rapidly changing models of content. With a very personal passion for storytelling and an ability to rally those around her, Wendy also sat on the Luminato Advisory Committee and the Now Magazine Advisory Committee.

Linda Carte
VP, Creative Director
Innocean Worldwide Canada

Brett Channer
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Mass Minority

Travis Cowdy
VP, Executive Creative Director
DentsuBos

The days of buying a consumer’s attention are long gone, so we’d better find a way to earn it. Hopefully we can have some fun doing it too. Travis is an internationally awarded Creative Director with a foundation in design and art direction. He’s been lucky enough to shape and build some of the world’s most iconic brands. He’s also made a lot of mistakes. Currently residing in Toronto Canada, he is Executive Creative Director at DentsuBos, overseeing creative output on brands like Lexus, Brita, and Uniqlo.

Dorothy Czylyski
Head of Health
No Fixed Address

Dorothy is a healthcare marketing veteran, with 20 years of experience building pharmaceutical brands that impact patient lives. With a Master of Science (MSc) in Clinical Pharmacology, Dorothy started her healthcare communications career as a Medical Writer, moving into Account Management and Operations at agencies Medicus LifeBrands, SCRIPT, Klick Health, and most recently Fresh Squeezed Ideas, where she was President. In January 2019 she brought all of her experience together and opened the Health Division at No Fixed Address Inc, which currently works with large multinational pharmaceutical companies as well as healthcare startups. Her team is at the forefront of pharmaceutical marketing, taking a consultative approach combined with creative and digital services to navigate potentially complex subject areas while also meeting the demand for interactions in healthcare that match what happens in the consumer space. Dorothy is also a Past President of the Ontario Pharmaceutical Marketing Association (OPMA), and continues to serve on the Board in an Advisory capacity.

Siobhan Dempsey
Associate Creative Director
Grey

Siobhan has spent her entire advertising career in Toronto, which must be some kind of record. She has won some awards along the way, and roughly half of them are for ads.

Siobhan has been fortunate to participate in some campaigns that were more than just ads, like The Hellmann's Real Food Movement and Maxwell House Brew Some Good, as well as creating a beloved Canadian cultural icon, the North American House Hippo. The hippo figures prominently in conversations with interns that go something like this, "You made the House Hippo ad! I loved that ad! You know, when you were already a grown adult with a real job. And I was just a tot." It's fun.

Career highlights include a shoot in Mexico where a 400 lb. man with a scorpion belt buckle paid the extras from a roll of bills the size of a birthday cake, watching a Barcelona vs. Chelsea Champions League semi-final at Camp Nou, and being called a “crackhead” by Alec Baldwin.

Glen D'Souza
Executive Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors

Good at his job

Leaves nothing to chance

Everybody thinks I’m ok

Never lets you down!

Dominic Faucher
Associate Creative Director
Orkestra

Unconventional in every respect, Dominic still hasn’t quite grasped the limits of our society. He likes to explore them by deliberately (or accidentally) causing public discomfort that forces people to adopt a new point of view. Unlike some, he can tell the difference between efficiency and bullshit. That’s all it took to persuade Orkestra to put him at the head of its creative army.

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.  

George Giampuranis
Executive Creative Director
Taxi Advertising Montreal Inc

George is an award winning creative leader with over 20 years of experience. George is responsible for TAXI MTL’s integrated creative vision as well as leading the agency’s national accounts such as Fido, Danone, Sanofi and Volkswagen locally.  As Brand Director at Ubisoft, George helped launch Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft’s fastest growing new IP in 2014 and its critically acclaimed successor in 2016. As a Creative Director and partner at Sid Lee, George led a team of 32 multidisciplinary creatives and earned national and international acclaim for his work on MGM Resorts International, Cirque du Soleil, Tourisme Montréal, adidas, Square Enix and Ubisoft.

With the benefit of working in both an agency and AAA game studio perspective, he encourages his teams to see themselves as storytellers who harness evolving market insights & innovation to connect with audiences though the power of creativity.

Chantal Gobeil
Creative Director
K72

From Sydney to Montreal, Chantal has been shaping her vision of design for nearly 20 years. She is drawn to projects where intelligence reigns, firmly believing that aesthetics should support insight. Collaboration inspires her, regardless of size – from small to monumental, local to global or start-up to an established company. Her goal is to work with different experts to generate discussions that serve to improve the creative product and tell the right story.

Danielle Haythorne
Creative Director
One Twenty Three West

Danielle is a Creative Director at One Twenty Three West. She began her career in Toronto working at a handful of top agencies before moving to Vancouver in 2012. She has developed award-winning campaigns for everything from small local companies to big national brands. Her work has been recognized by national and international award shows including One Show, Cannes Lions and Communication Arts. 

Tony Hird
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Here Be Monsters

Tony is co-founder and Creative Director of Here Be Monsters, an independent agency that's all about taking brands to new places.

Prior to launching Here Be Monsters, he worked at several creatively influential agencies including Rethink, BBDO, TAXI, and as a Team Lead in lululemon's groundbreaking creative department. In his 17+ career, his work has contributed to the success of major clients, including Molson, Volkswagen, Telus, Solo Mobile, BC Hydro, Milk producers of Québec, Frito Lay, Vancouver Aquarium and A&W.

His work has been featured in both national and international publications and received recognition at numerous award shows including The Marketing Awards, Communication Arts, Applied Arts, The One Show, The Ad and Design Club of Canada and The Art Directors Club.

Kevan Kalyan
Creative Group Head
Target

Kev Kalyan is a Creative Group Head at Target and is part of the team that helped the agency win the coveted Strategy Small Agency of the Year 2019. Over the last 19 years, he’s helped brands from Dubai to Halifax to St. John’s, Newfoundland, break through the clutter. Kev has extensive experience working for clients in a wide range of consumer and business categories including Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, Patagonia, Ace Hardware, College of the North Atlantic, KLM, Parks Canada, Medavie Blue Cross, The Nova Scotia Liquor Corp, Emirates Airlines, and United Way Halifax — to name a few.

For the past 5 years at Target, he’s worked tirelessly to develop breakthrough brand and advertising campaigns for its clients, including Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism. Kev’s efforts have helped Find Yourself become widely recognized as the most successful and most awarded tourism and destination marketing campaign in North America. This tourism work was also awarded the prestigious ‘Best Campaign’ award at Strategy’s Agency of the Year gala event. 

His work has been recognized at Applied Arts, Webby Awards, ADCC, ICE, Marketing Awards to multiple shortlists at Cannes, most recently, Strategy’s 2019 Small Agency of the Year. But he’s still looking for that elusive Yellow Pencil though...  

What time Kev has left between juggling work and being chased by a 5-year-old in a unicorn cape, he spends road and trail running and hiking the East Coast Trail.

Michael Kasprow
Creative Director & Lead, Communications Practice
Jackman Reinvents

Caitlin Keeley
Associate Creative Director
UNION

Caitlin has been creatively solving business problems for over a decade. She has made ads, art, music videos and, most recently, a short film. She is a word nerd who believes in the power of a great idea. Her work spans all media, and she has helped build the brands of a variety of clients from banks to burgers. She especially likes “using her advertising powers for good” in support of contemporary art institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. When she’s not writing, she’s reading.

Irfan Khan
Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Throughout his career, Irfan has developed breakthrough work for both local and international brands. He has demonstrated his love for brand communication and its ever-changing landscape with thinking that transcends conventional media.

As a copywriter and Creative Director, Irfan’s has garnered global recognition from shows such as Cannes, One Show, CLIOs, The Art Directors Club of New York, D&AD and Communication Arts. Irfan was also previously ranked in the top ten copywriters in the world.

Meredith Klapowich
Creative Director
Narrative

Meredith’s career began on the account side at Bensimon Byrne, where she honed her strategic skills before switching over to creative. As a multi-hyphenate art director, her skill suite expanded across a range of disciplines including mass advertising, digital, social, experiential, influencer partnerships and PR. 

Intrigued by the continued and murky prospect of blurred lines between agency disciplines, she joined Narrative as Creative Director in 2016. 

Outside of leading work across a vast array of clients including Nike, Converse, Scotiabank, Casey House, Constellation Brands, Nestle, Salesforce and Bayer, she has helped to grow the Narrative team to three times the size since she joined. 

Over the course of her tenure, she’s led the team, alongside her creative partner, to a multitude of accolades including:  Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, One Show Pencils and Clios. Most recently Narrative was named Canada’s PR Agency of the Year by Strategy Magazine and was awarded Pro Bono Campaign of the Year by Ad Age. She is currently ranked #8 in Strategy Magazine’s Top Art Directors in Canada (2019), and holds the #15 Creative Director spot. 

Meredith is a Cool Ranch Dorito connoisseur, Stevie Nicks fanatic, toile pattern devotee, and new mum to daughter Bee. Her husband is a former chef who now works in finance. Multi-hyphenates run in the family.

Meghan Kraemer
Creative Director
The Hive Strategic Marketing

“Copywriter or Art Director?” After years of the skepticism and sideway glances that come with explaining she does both, Meghan is excited to step into the role of Creative Director for The Hive. Finally, she doesn’t have to clarify her role.

From Cadbury to Coca-Cola, Meghan has carved out creative for some of the world’s biggest brands, winning awards and global accolades along the way.

Part of the 0.01% of Creative Directors who are mothers, when she’s not chasing exceptional work, she’s chasing after her young daughters – Norah (3.5) and Maeve (1). They drive her to keep doing better and totally dominate her Instagram. #babyspam

Marketa Krivy
Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer
Ruby & Foster

Marketa Krivy is founder and Chief Brand Officer at ruby & foster, a marketing agency for the 21^st century. The agency takes a holistic approach to each client’s business and functions as an extension of the internal marketing team. The agency believes in orienting decision making around a deep understanding of customers and use creativity in a way that’s more closely tied with business goals.

Before founding ruby & foster, Marketa was Executive Creative Director at Tribal Worldwide. There she led advertising, brand and digital experience initiatives for clients spanning QSR, CPG, automotive, government and insurance. A champion of cross-disciplinary team collaboration that integrates both agency and client, she took aim at bridging the gap that exists between brand-led ideas and user-lead thinking.

The collaborative approach resulted in the 2017 multi-platform Crime Stoppers campaign that led to the rescue of an underaged human trafficking victim.

Over the course of her multi-disciplinary career spanning over two decades, Marketa has worked on many global brands including Ikea, McDonalds, Adidas, Dove and VW, as well as national brands like Loblaws President's Choice, which in 2016 was awarded Strategy's Brand of the Year.

Her work has won at Cannes, One Show, Clios, ADCC, Marketing Awards, Effies and Cassies, appeared in Adweek and Ad Age, and has been organically picked up by Inc., Mashable, MobileSyrup and psfk.

She also has the distinction of creating one of ICA’s top 10 ads of all time.

In addition to ruby & foster, Marketa is a partner and strategic lead at Bad Girls Collective, a literary multi-media platform tailored for women on that intellectual tip.

Matt Litzinger
President and Chief Creative Officer
The Local Collective

Matt Litzinger is one of the Founders and the President and CCO of The Local Collective. Prior to launching TLC, he was the President and CCO of Red Lion Canada and has held various creative leadership roles throughout his career. An industry veteran, his work has been internationally awarded and recognized and he has been creatively responsible for guiding products and companies in virtually every category for multiple Canadian agencies. He loves spending his downtime with his family and thinks The Mandalorian should have more episodes.

Todd Mackie
Chief Creative Officer
BBDO Canada

Todd has spent the last 5 years as the Co-CCO of BBDO Toronto, where he’s helped lead his agency to many national and international awards on a variety of different clients. Before that he spent 10 years at DDB Canada where he garnered 4 Strategy Agency of the Year titles. Creatively he has won at every national and international award show, including the One Show, Clios, London International, Communication Arts, D&AD, and several Cannes Lions. Todd has also been an award judge for the Lisbon ad festival, The Bessies, Applied Arts, The CMA’s and The Marketing Awards. Over the last decade he has also been named one of the top ten CD’s in Canada. Todd’s love of problem solving is second only to his love of fishing. Sometimes he does both at the same time. Just ask him about the 7-pound smallmouth bass story.

Craig Markou
VP, Creative Director
The Mars Agency

From shooting super bowl commercials in LA to judging award shows in Hong Kong, Craig’s advertising career has literally taken him around the world. In the process he has learned how to lead creative teams to craft powerful ideas, regardless of medium. Craig has been lucky enough to have worked with top global clients including Anheuser-Busch, Campbell's, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, PepsiCo, PGA, Toyota, and Walmart. Along the way he has won at every major international award show including Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, Effies and One Show.

Marty Martinez
Global Executive Creative Director - Health
Tank

Over the course of his career, Marty’s creative vision and leadership capabilities have earned him positions at some of the top agencies, including Publicis, Sudler & Hennessy, and Ogilvy Commonhealth. Throughout, he has helped steer countless campaigns for pharmaceutical and consumer brands, and earned many of the industry’s top awards. 

Marty is currently Global Executive Creative Director- Health at Tank Worldwide, where he leads a talented team of designers, art directors and writers toward promoting brands in ways that surpass client expectation.

His passion for advertising has been the catalyst of his own success in the field, and earned him invitations to serve as judge for such esteemed competitions as the LIA, the Global Awards, the MM&M Awards, the Webbys, The One Show and the Marketing Awards.

Rachel McCready
Executive Creative Director
Klick Health

To make different creative, we must be willing to create differently. That’s what inspires the continual re-invention of Rachel McCready’s approach to the creative process.

“Create with a strategist. Create with a scientist. Create with someone who is not you.” Rachel believes that unexpected collaborations are key to bringing our work to new places. She re-envisions the creative process as a hackathon: small, diverse groups inventing unexpected visions of a world where brands thrive, and unique views on how to get there.

Growing up with one parent a Psychiatrist and the other an academic psychologist gave Rachel an early view into what makes people tick: what is unique to each of us, and what unites us. 

Advertising was an early love, with Rachel using her family’s 80s-era SuperVHS video camera to make commercials for everything from shoes to shampoo. 

Rachel’s health advertising career started at an independent agency in Toronto, then focused on compliance program and direct marketing. Rachel established a creative practice in the small shop and transformed it into a well-known AOR in the Canadian market, winning 80% of competitive pitches and winning awards for unexpected creative. Next she took that experience to a network agency, Havas Health, where she led Canada’s creative team to an even stronger growth streak, and more creative awards. 

Rachel’s path to her current role as Executive Creative Director at Klick Health was a branched one, which has influenced her creative approach: “If we cling to a protectionistic view of the creative process, we will be left behind. We need to throw open the doors and invite diverse thinking in.”

Her brand, launch, and global work includes such efforts as Cialis (It’s an Everyday Thing; Men Need Options); Gardasil (VERSED on HPV, Detect the Unprotected); Vagifem (The Big Ow); Steglatro (Power Forward Global Launch); Pegasys (Body of Evidence); Zenhale (“Fine, Thanks”); and Concerta (38 Years). Her campaigns have been recognized at many international creative award shows, including the Global Awards, MM&M, PM360, and The Creative Floor. 

Despite the depth of her experience, however, Rachel believes the first step in the creative process is to “forget everything. Don’t ask for an ad - ask for a new way of looking at things, and see what happens.”

Sylvie Mercier
Creative Director
Critical Mass

For the last two decades, Sylvie has been leading teams that define and reinvent the customer experience for global brands, including Proctor & Gamble, Nike, Home Depot, Dell, Samsung, HP, Petco, USAA, Clorox and AT&T. Her innovative UX design, mobile applications and 360° campaigns exemplify how user-lead digital creative can drive sales and brand impressions. Her deep understanding of the digital landscape continues to be sought out by clients.

Sylvie is an avid runner, climber and sweater maker. She will gladly knit you your next campaign.

Jeff Millar
Creative Director
Central Station

Jeff started in computer animation, but soon found himself drawn to design and advertising. Throughout his 20 year career as a Designer and Creative Director, Jeff has worked on brand identities, innovations, product launches and many award-winning breakthrough retail campaigns for Nike, Molson Coors, Lindt, the Toronto Blue Jays, and Canada’s biggest department store, Hudson’s Bay Company — including the famous Hudson’s Bay Christmas windows.

Tony Miller
VP, Executive Creative Director
Anderson DDB

Tony is a second generation copywriter and ad man who has worked on a multitude of brands in his more than 30 year career, including such iconic names as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Sprint, Toshiba, Hershey, Sony, Sun Life and a vast array of global healthcare campaigns.

His work has appeared in national and international award shows, including Cannes, Communication Arts, The Clios, Archive and the London International, where he took home a Gold statue for Best Copywriting.

Tony has been a Judge at Cannes, and many other consumer and healthcare shows. He loves to mentor young talent and is currently the Chair of Centennial College’s Program Advisory Committee for the their Advertising, Creative & Digital Strategy program.

He is most proud of his work for causes like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Canadian Doctors for the Protection from Guns.

Hugo Morin
Creative Director
Havas Montreal

In the beginnings of the internet, Hugo Morin and a bunch of other fools co-founded an award- winning web design studio called Mecano. As you might expect, he pretty much did it all: art director, in-house illustrator, copywriter and, even occasionally, planner. He helped many high-profile clients reach sky-high results in the digital world: Bombardier, Toyota, Burger King, MEGA Brands and Capital One, to name a few. Years later, as Flash so mercilessly died, he decided it was a good time to walk the righteous path of advertising. In 2010, he took off as an art director at TAXI Montreal and never looked back.

Along the way, Hugo got a degree in marketing and management, became creative director at Brad and then Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy Canada, where he built creative teams to work on accounts like Shreddies, Fairmont Queen-Elizabeth and Opéra de Montréal. In his downtime, he also took charge of all things digital and managed remote offices in Quebec City.

Hugo is now stirring the pot as a creative director at Havas Montreal. He is still relentlessly advocating for an interdisciplinary and no-fear approach to advertising, and strives to teach creatives, managers and clients that everything you don’t yet understand is the most exciting thing.

Katie Muir
Senior Vice President
The Colony Project

With over 13 years experience in the marketing communications industry, Katie has spent her career developing strategic communications programs, building profile and managing crises for some of the world’s leading brands. Katie brings a combination of methodical process and creative thinking to every challenge, helping clients develop strategic, integrated programs to elevate brands, engage consumers and drive business results.

A seasoned communicator, Katie is committed to driving conversation rooted in consumer insights, resulting in Strategy hardware three consecutive years. Prior to joining Colony, Katie held the position of Vice President at Citizen Relations and most recently, helped launch the PR arm at integrated agency, No Fixed Address. Having spent her career at a number of Canada’s top communications agencies, Katie has counselled global brands including, Loblaw Companies Limited, PepsiCo Foods, P&G, IBM and Kraft Heinz.

Outside of work, Katie is the mom of two young boys ages two and five. When she’s not playing superheroes or stepping on stray Lego, you can find baking cookies for her side hustle – Sugar by Katie.

Alison Neill
Executive Group Director of Brand and Digital Strategy
Ogilvy Montreal

Gail Pak
Creative Director
McCann

Gail has spent the last 18 years of her career honing her craft at top creative shops including McCann, Ogilvy & Mather, Lowe Roche, Leo Burnett, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Zulu Alpha Kilo and now McCann. As her experiences cut across multiple categories, Gail has built integrated campaigns for global brands such as Kellogg's, P&G, Visa and Unilever. Her passion for understanding clients business needs and finding creative solutions has allowed her to be recognized at The One Club, LIAs, Communication Arts, Marketing, and featured in Fast Company.

She likes to spend her spare time being an online juror for awards shows so this was very convenient.

Lara Palmer
Creative Director

In her three decades as an Advertising Creative, Lara’s goal has always been and still is to create world-class work. She has been fortunate to work with the top talent in the industry on a diverse range of global and regional brands in Canada and the U.S. As an Art Director, Writer and Creative Director Lara can approach a creative problem from all sides and has acquired a full toolbox to help her find insightful and original creative solutions. 

Her work has exceeded business goals and won hundreds of Canadian and International creative and effectiveness awards including One Show pencils and Cannes Gold Lions. She was honoured by Strategy Magazine as the 7th most awarded Art Director in Canada for the decade between 2000 and 2010.

She currently freelances with a variety of agencies and clients including being CD at Ready Set where they create a constant flow of thumb-stopping video for paid social disrupting the way video is created and produced. 

When she’s not working she’s “livin’ the dream” on Vancouver Island and can usually be found standing sideways on a board in the ocean surf or on a powder packed mountain side.

Craig Redmond
Creative Director
Elevator Strategy

Craig began his career in Hong Kong where he cut his teeth as a young writer, working for Ogilvy and Mather on Pan-Asian accounts like AT&T, Hong Kong Tourism and Mercedes Benz.

He moved back to Canada with a new family and has since, split his time between Toronto and Vancouver over a prolific twenty years.

Craig has worked for global network agencies like Leo Burnett, BBDO and Young and Rubicam. He’s also taken the creative helm of fiercely independent boutiques like his present home at Elevator.

Leading client businesses such as Chrysler Canada, Pepsi Frito Lay, Campbell’s and Labatt, Craig has been recognized around the world for work he has penned and championed – from Cannes and Communication arts to Marketing Gold and Lotus Best of Show.

But Redmond concedes that his greatest professional joy and accomplishment has always been in helping new people to the industry find their path and chase their dreams.

Geoff Redwood
Creative Director
Jan Kelley

The courageous creative leader at Jann Kelly, Geoff brings over 20 years of experience to the job, having honed his craft as an art director for clients like Sobeys, Harley-Davidson and Peller Estates Winery. He prides himself on providing creative and design in both traditional and non-traditional advertising formats, having overseen the development of multiple digital properties including responsive digital platforms, mobile marketing and app development.

Today, Geoff aids the team in developing and evaluating creative strategies and concepts for clients including Petro-Canada Lubricants, Terrapure Environmental, Canadian Tire Financial Services and Revera Retirement Living. Geoff holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University, is a graduate of the Sheridan College Graphic Design program and is a designated Registered Graphic Designer through the RGD.

Doug Robinson
Founder, CEO
Doug&Partners

Doug has managed a rare career in advertising. Not only was he Chairman | CCO for one of Canada’s most awarded network agencies, but he then went on to found doug&partners, one of the country’s most tenured and awarded independent creative shops. Even after 18 years as an independent, d&p was recognized by Strategy Magazine as one of Canada’s top 5 small agencies of the year for 2019.

The excitement of contributing to the success of existing brands, or building them from the ground up, fuels his passion and enthusiasm for the business, and he feels lucky to have had the good fortune of crafting work for a broad range of categories, from retail to packaged goods, and automotive to beer (don’t mix those last two).

Aside from consistently winning and judging the top award shows in the world, Doug was also named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

However, Doug will always stand by the fact that his most meaningful accomplishment continues to be the opportunity to mentor, groom and celebrate the success of the many employees and colleagues who go on to be industry leaders themselves.

Sarah Rutherford
Creative Director
Cossette

Sarah Rutherford has dedicated her career to uncovering the human truth behind every brief. Her empathy for people has led to impactful behavioural customer changes and driven major business results. Today, Sarah is ranked as the top female copywriter in Canada by Strategy Magazine, and #5 overall. Her work has been recognized by Cannes, ECHO, Warc, LIAs, among others.
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Sarah is currently a Creative Director at Cossette Communications in Toronto, Ontario. She is lucky to have worked on great brands such as TD Bank, SickKids Hospital, BMW, Air Canada, TELUS, Walmart, M&M Food Market, Royal Canadian Mint, Canopy Growth and many more. 

Catherine Savard
Creative Director
Lemieux Bedard

Catherine’s passion as a communicator began with a career in journalism and moved into advertising when she founded a digital agency in Montreal in the early days of what was then called the world wide web. She has since worked in a variety of large and specialized advertising agencies from Australia, to Asia and Canada.

Her outlook and work are informed by her experiences living all over the world, where she has contributed to the success of brands such as Tourism Australia, Sony, Toyota, L’Oréal, McDonalds, Volkswagen, Kijiji and more. Her work has been praised locally as well as internationally.

Catherine’s motivations have always been to build strong relationships with her team and clients, allowing for an atmosphere of trust in which great work can emerge and grow.

She is now head of creative, digital and strategy at Lemieux Bédard.

Ryan Spelliscy
Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer
Juliet Creative

Ryan’s advertising career has spanned over a decade and has taken him from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco to Sid Lee in Montreal. At 36, he was named Chief Creative Officer of J.Walter Thompson, Toronto. It’s a post that made him one of the youngest people to ever run a top agency. Over the years, Ryan has worked on global campaigns for Adidas and Stella Artois, and Super Bowl spots in the USA. Fast Company calls his campaign for Hyundai Assurance one of the most memorable of the modern era. But the greatest project Ryan has ever worked on is raising his two sons.

Hayes Steinberg
Partner, Chief Creative Officer
The Mark

Hayes Steinberg is the Chief Creative Officer and Partner at The Mark, a creative consultancy focused on building audiences, brands, and business. His work has appeared in every major international and domestic awards show, including Cannes, The One Show, D&AD, Communication Arts, The Marketing Awards, The Cassies, The Advertising and Design Club of Canada and the Canadian Marketing Awards (CMA's), just to name a few. 

Through Hayes’ career as a Copywriter and Creative Director, he has worked with smart clients on great brands in every major industry sector. 

Most recently, Hayes led creative on two branded documentary films for Scotiabank, one in Latin America that aired on National Geographic and the other in Canada that will have its world premiere at The Hot Docs Festival.

Angela Sung
Creative Director
Arrivals + Departures

Angela Sung has worked at some of the top ad agencies in Dubai, Vancouver, and Toronto before coming to Arrivals and Departures as Creative Director. She brings forward her expertise in creating visionary insights for world-class brands across the globe. 

Her passion for producing simple, impactful and strategic business solutions coupled with original creative thinking pushed her to transform brands like Fallsview Casino, McDonalds, VW, Pacific Blue Cross and many more. 

Spanning 17 years of advertising experience, Angela's work has been recognized in many national and international advertising shows including Cannes, D&AD, Communication Arts, One Show, London International Awards, Art Directors Club of New York, Marketing Awards, among others. 

Kim Tarlo
Creative Director
Sid Lee

Kim is an award-winning Creative Director who has spent the last thirteen years working at agencies in the UK, the US, and Canada. She was once one of Marketing’s Top 30 Under 30, and now passed 30 (which she’s totallllly okay with) she continues to work on a wide lens of national and international clients from brand design to campaign work as Creative Director at Sid Lee.  She has a true passion for art, music, and film – which she expresses at the agency, but also through her side hustle of directing music videos and shorts. She’s obsessed with her dog Roo, and currently studying her WSET at night on the road to being a sommelier.

Brent Wardrop
Partner, Creative Director
Elemental

Brent is an award-winning multidisciplinary Creative Director with a diverse range of experience working with a myriad of industries. As a partner at Elemental, the agency he founded, Brent leads teams that have created effective solutions for clients such as Dyson, SCENE, Campari and Starbucks Canada.

Curious by nature, and driven to adventure; Brent’s interests include international travel, culture, history, music and trying his best not to kill the plants and flowers in his gardens. 

Dave Watson
VP, Executive Creative Director | Design
Mosaic North America

Design is a good idea: This string of five simple words has inspired and guided Dave's professional journey over the past 20 years.

For close to 15 years, Dave honed his passion as part of the talented team at TAXI, blurring the lines of design and advertising, winning global acclaim culminating with being named Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Decade. In early 2017, Dave left TAXI to become the Executive Creative Director of Design at Mosaic, where he currently leads one of the largest design teams in North America. His work for brands like Tishman Speyer, Budweiser, MINI, TELUS, Boston Pizza and many more has been recognized over 200 times at national and international award shows.

In case you were wondering, Dave still thinks design is a good idea, and he continues to preach the importance of design thinking and creativity to solve business problems across North America.

Lionel Wong
VP, Creative Director
Church + State

Lionel is an award-winning Art Director and Designer by trade. He has branded cannabis LP's, created a clothing line, and re-launched the CFL.

He’s created compelling campaigns for a wide array of Fortune 500 clients including TD Bank, Kraft, Walmart, McDonald’s, adidas and Nike to name a few. He’s also worked with celebrity athletes like Chris Bosh, Kevin Pillar, and Connor McDavid.

Carlos Moreno
Former Global CCO, Cossette

Carlos Moreno is one of the most successful creative directors in Canada. Under his leadership, Cossette was named Canadian "Agency of the Year" by Strategy Magazine in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He brought the same honour to BBDO in 2011. In both cases, firsts for the agencies. As an art director, he was twice included in the Top Ten list globally by The Gunn Report. In 2018 and 2019 he was the number one creative director in Canada on the Strategy Magazine Creative Report Card.

A native of Guatemala, Carlos was named as one of the most Influential Hispanics in Canada by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  He has worked as an art director and creative director in Toronto and New York for such agencies as McCann, Saatchi and Downtown Partners DDB.

In 2015, Carlos brought his skills to Cossette where he ran a variety of blue chip accounts, including McDonald’s, General Mills and SickKids.

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.

Sean Cochrane
VFX Artist
the Vanity

With more than 23 years’ experience in post production, Sean has created motion graphics and visual effects for over 2000 commercials, as well as television id's, show opens and title sequences.  In 2010, he opened theVanity with fellow VFX artist Naveen Srivastava and EP Stephanie Pennington.

theVanity is one of the top VFX companies in Toronto and over the last decade Sean and the team have worked on countless award winning campaigns for many brands including Sick Kids, Sport Check, and No Frills.

Sean has a reputation for high level of VFX work. He works to be as fast as possible to give his clients the best possible experience. He also pushes artistic boundaries to maximize creative possibilities.  Sean is known in Canada for his ability to problem solve outside the normal VFX toolkit.

Tom Eymundsoon
Partner, CEO, Director
Pirate

Tom has been giving brands a voice for over 20 years. As an internationally awarded Sonic Branding strategist, he's continually called upon to judge and/or preside over numerous advertising awards shows, including London International Awards, Cannes Lions, The One Show, Clio, D&AD, Creative Arts, New York Festivals, Marketing Awards and more. Tom has worked with almost every major advertising agency and advertiser in North America, as well as many others around the world. He's a partner, CEO and driving force behind the ongoing evolution of Pirate Group Inc. Through his day-to-day leadership, mentoring and strategic development Pirate has become a dominant creative audio force in the North American market. Tom's focus and tenacious attention to detail ensures that Pirate and its growing list of clients continue to be heard.

Alison Gordon
Editor
Outsider Editorial

Alison returned to Toronto after 5 years of cutting in Paris to co-found Outsider Editorial with the premise that editors could be as mobile as directors. Her extensive career has seen her work recognized by many international awards. She has worked in Canada, the US and Europe. Known for finding the “human moments” and her deep love of movement, she’s been a natural fit for brands such as Lululemon, Nordstrom & Sapporo. Alison is a member of Free the Bid in the US and served on the board of the A.I.C.E. (Association of Independent Creative Editors) from 2016-2018. She is also currently repped in France by Melting Pot Agency.

Jay Grandin
Partner and Creative Director
Giant Ant

Jay is Co-Founder of Giant Ant, an animation studio in Vancouver.

As Creative Director, Jay oversees nearly every project in the studio—leading the concept development and script writing processes, and actively involved in design and animation.

Giant Ant has been awarded a Daytime Emmy, four ADC Gold cubes, including a Best in Category award for Illustration, and have received honours at The Clios and One Show.

Giant Ant has been honoured 4 times on Working Not Working’s list of 50 Companies Freelance Creatives Would Kill to Work for Full-time—last year on the honouree list, and the previous 3 in the top 50—alongside Nasa, Google, Telsa, Nike and Pixar.

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.

Melanie Hider
Editor
Saints Editorial

Melanie grew up in South Africa, lived in London and then settled in Canada, which has left her with quite a mess of an accent. Her passion for film exploded in London (UK) where she was introduced to the unlimited cinema card, often watching 3 films a night. This resulted in a solid sugar addiction, and her editing a string of short films. Apparently having lived on two continents wasn’t enough, so Melanie made her way to Canada and found her start in commercial editing at Bijou Editorial.

She has been editing commercials, short films and sketches for over a decade in Toronto, working on brands including P&G, TD, TJX, Canadian Tire, Koodo, Mitsubishi and Honda. She loves all types of storytelling, but has made her mark as a comedy editor. Melanie’s work has garnered various awards including a Cannes Lion and the Cannes Young Director award (Max Sherman). Aside from commercials, she has worked on shows including "Funny as Hell" with Jon Dore and “Newborn Moms” with Aurora Browne. 

Sharing her passion for editing is very important to her, which led to a teaching stint at Westminster Kingsway College in London and her presence on judging panels including, the Bessies, the Clios and the Marketing awards. Melanie currently works at Saints Editorial in Toronto spending only slightly less time at the Cinema.

Lyranda Martin-Evans
VP, Executive Creative Director
DentsuBos

Lyranda is an award-winning creative director, author, and podcast host. She currently sits on the Advertising and Design Club of Canada board of directors and is the host of their podcast “ADCC Created” which interviews top talent and unpacks how some of the best campaigns actually got made.  Her bestselling book “Reasons Mommy Drinks”, a humour book about parenting, has been published in three languages. She is also the podcast host for Google’s “Lead by Womenwill” which aims to address gender disparity in the workforce and champion young women in their careers. A working mom with two young boys at home, in her spare time she enjoys mainlining coffee. 

Natalie Rae Robison
Director
OPC

Natalie Rae is an award winning filmmaker originally from Vancouver.

Her background in producing, writing and dance has crafted her unique voice as an emotional story-teller balancing grit and imagination. 

Directing commercials, music videos and films, her work has been celebrated internationally by the YDA's, Creativity Online, Fast Company, Ad Week, SHOOTS Young Director Showcase, the Juno's, MMVA's, Prism Prize Awards, Women in Film Festival, the International Art Festival, among many others.

Recently, her video for Leon Bridges, Bad Bad News was short listed for best video at the YDA'S, nominated for Best Pop Video at the UKMVA’s and Best Video and Best Cinematography at Camerimage Film Festival.

Natalie’s work explores contemporary issues through complex characters, rich visuals and wit. She is currently in post-production on her first feature documentary film.

Matt Syberg-Olsen
Executive Creative Director
Doug&Partners

Perhaps the greatest testament to Matt’s aptitude at the fine art of persuasion is that he was accepted into two separate universities. First, the University of British Columbia, for a B.A. in English Literature. And despite that, someone let him into Dalhousie Law School. Then he chucked it all and got into advertising.

With a career spanning roughly a billion years, winding through agencies and clients big and small, Matt’s arrived home at doug&partners.

He believes in the power of a good idea, the importance of teamwork and that you don’t have to be a jerk to get things done.

Mark Zibert
Director
Scouts Honour

Melanie Charbonneau
Director
Cinelande

Melanie Charbonneau has been directing advertising films for 12 years. Her work was rewarded by Cannes Lion, Marketing awards, Atomic awards, CMA awards, CREA. She's also an ambassador for the organization Free the bid. Her first feature film Fabulous won at the prestigious Busan International film festival in South Korea. She's represented by Cinelande in Montreal and Spy Films in Toronto. 

James Michael Chiang
Director
Steam Films

James Michael Chiang is a director and photographer with an eye for strong visual storytelling and an emphasis towards raw emotional performances. James Michael has made an impressive debut with a wide mixture of clients ranging from SickKids to the Toronto Blue Jays. His work has been internationally recognized by the Clios, Cannes Lions, London International Awards, Applied Arts and the Marketing Awards.  His editorial work has been featured in media worldwide, including The Fader, W Magazine, V Magazine, and Noisey. He is also a co-founder of Good Fun Club, an art night held monthly with a focus on making art for the sake of making it - no deadlines, no clients, no judgements.

Yan Dal Santo
President
Mile Inn

Yan oversees the Mile Inn vision and sits at the helm of the Toronto office. His career began in 1994 as a sound engineer in advertising and quickly after a founding partner of Apollo Studios. Always driven by strong creatives Yan’s skill-set soon evolved into directing, editing and composing. After founding 1one production in Montreal he took the lead of Apollo's Toronto studio and established himself in the city for good. Along with acting as president of Mile Inn, Yan is an accomplished multi award-winning director, editor, music composer, sound engineer, sound designer, entrepreneur and leader.

Andre Pienaar
Director & Cinematographer
AJ Pienaar Productions

André’s work demonstrates an extraordinary cinematic range. His feature film credits include the character study LEN AND COMPANY, starring Rhys Ifans and Juno Temple, the dance drama HOW SHE MOVE, the period piece ALMOST AMERICA and the sensual love story BENEATH THE RIVER. His TV credits are also varied in both style and subject matter and include Spike TV's series THE MIST, based on the Stephen King novella of the same name, Lifetime’s AALIYAH:PRINCESS OF R&B, THE WINNING SEASON and TNT's A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, starring William H. Macy and Adam Arkin. 

André has numerous nominations and awards for his work, including a nomination for Best Feature Film Cinematography at the Canadian Society of Cinematographer Awards for LEN AND COMPANY. His short film work includes THIS MIGHT BE GOOD for Director Patricia Rozema and CAMERA for Director David Cronenberg. André is exclusively represented by SESLER, www.sesler.com.

Eva Van den Bulcke
Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors

Eva Van den Bulcke is a Creative Director and was partner at Sid Lee, from 1998 until 2014. Since then she’s been a freelance creative director for several major agencies as well as working with clients directly. A skilful and passionate individual, Eva’s creativity and vision have earned her respect and admiration from both colleagues and clients, making her one of the most creative and successful marketing professionals in Canada. The accolades have come from all sides: PCM Awards, Marketing Awards, Design & Advertising Awards, Grafika magazine, New York Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. She was selected by Marketing Magazine for its Top 30 Under 30 personalities to follow, and La Presse designated her as one of the "six women who make a difference in Quebec". Eva carefully addresses each and every aspect of the creative process, from strategic planning to selecting the right team of creative minds. She continually manages to get it right, from the initial idea to the public unveiling.

Eva creates deeper experiences between brands and consumers in order to develop rich communities of interest that encourage good deeds. She is especially skilled in creating content that generates discussions and contributes to the enrichment of people's lives. Not only does she love to tell stories, but she also is passionate about bringing them to life (storytelling and storydoing). She firmly believes that businesses can bring about the change that society clearly needs.

She has always been inspired by the audacity of using a variety of creative modes, including architecture, television, the Internet and interactive media, as well as advertising. She also enjoys being part of a team that considers all the emotional and environmental aspects of the brand experience.

Mikey Richardson
President
Jacknife

Mikey leads many of the diverse projects Jacknife tackles, including visual identity, packaging, environmental, campaign and branding programs. 

Before co-founding Jacknife in 2013, Mikey co-founded AmoebaCorp in 1996 which he helped build into one of Canada’s most respected design agencies over 17 years. 

In addition to his role at Jacknife, Mikey has been a design and illustration educator at OCAD University. He enjoys public speaking and has had the honour of doing so at events for many organizations. Mikey is a Certified Graphic Designer with the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD).

Jennifer Weaymouth
Founder, Creative Director
Weaymouth Creative

Jennifer is an award-winning multidisciplinary Creative Director with a diverse range of experience building brands and leading campaigns across a variety of industries. She’s created effective and well-crafted solutions for clients such as Nike, LCBO and the Toronto Public Library Foundation. After playing a key role in idea generation and design excellence as Partner/CD at Oxygen Design Agency for 15 years, she launched her own boutique design agency. As a strong conceptual and strategic thinker, she spearheads all projects and upholds the highest standards of quality and design. Jennifer is an active member of Toronto’s design community and is on the RGD Certification Evaluation Committee. Her work has been recognized at ADCC, CMA, Communications Arts, Applied Arts, Graphis, Coupe, Unisource, Neenah and more.

David Adams
Partner, Creative Director
Art & Mechanical

David’s experience spans a broad range of brand and iden­tity programs working closely with organizations of all sizes – from entrepreneurial start-ups to global leaders. With a hands-on approach to both strategic and creative processes, he delivers distinct content and memorable experi­ences. His work is widely published and has been recognized by major national and international awards, annuals, editorials and blogs. He’s an Advertising and Design Club of Canada Board Member, and regularly volunteers his time to creative networks and organizations in Toronto. Being an active juror for creative competitions, he's always inspired with the boundary pushing work he sees, year after year.

Richard Belanger
Creative Director
Cossette

Richard brings a unique sense of style and unerring aesthetic design ethics to each project. For the last 20 years, he’s been coming up with ideas that make a statement—both visually and communicatively—and encapsulates all the signature qualities of the brand identity. He has worked on a diverse array of accounts ranging from museums to startups, NGOs and large Canadian and international corporations, easily moving between the worlds of art and design, as well as business and branding. His work has garnered local and international industry recognition, including design’s highest honours.

Monique Gamache
Design Director & Partner
WAX

Monique Gamache is design director and founding partner at Calgary-based creative agency WAX. Monique’s builds brands by telling their unique stories through clever, beautifully crafted design. Her work has been recognized at Cannes, ADC, the One Show, Type Directors Club and has earned a coveted Black Pencil at D&AD. Monique has been invited to judge many of these same award shows.

Will Hum
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Clear Space

Will is a graduate of OCAD and cut his teeth at the office of Canadian design icon, Burton Kramer. He was Design Director at Ove Brand Design for 6 years before co-founding Clear Space, where he leads the strategic vision and creative direction.

Will believes it’s all about clarity – in the way you work and in how you communicate with clients. While getting to the solution might not be easy, working with him should be.

With 23+ years of experience, Will has shaped the identities and communications for some of Canada’s most notable organizations including Toronto Global, Royal Bank of Canada, University of Toronto, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, garnering numerous awards and accolades for his work along the way. He has an obsession with the HBC brand and counts chopping wood as a favourite hobby.

Helen Kerr
Co-Founder / Director of Strategy, Research and Innovation
KerrSmith Design

Helen Kerr has led of one of North America’s pre-eminent, research driven, innovation and implementation companies for over 25 years. With degrees in both Environmental Studies and Industrial Design, her work integrates design, foresight and strategy. From the complex realm of healthcare, to relevant sustainability issues, and the intimate study of how we eat, her insights and design direction guide clients to realize business ideas as fully integrated solutions and complete brand experiences. Multi-disciplinary approaches to highly complex problems and experimental exploration have been the undercurrent of her career.

Helen is also a professor and researcher in the Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD University. She has been principle investigator for foresight projects leading participatory and co-creative processes involving enterprise wide engagement. Her most current projects focused on exploring the futures of multi-modal transportation and land use in Southern Ontario for 2071 for the Government of Ontario and speculation on the Future of Democracy for Elections Canada.

Helen has lectured and written extensively on research, strategy, design and innovation. In May 2012,

she was the focus of a CBC documentary film entitled “Great Minds of Design” and was admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2016.

Steph Mackie
Owner
Mackie Biernacki

At the idea shop Mackie Biernacki, Steph is a creative director for both advertising and design, but more importantly, she can kill orchids like nobody's business. She has worked at 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 won Lions, Pencils, Clios, and TED Ideas Worth Sharing, helped launch 2 agencies from scratch, and published a coffee-table book. She has revived brands, created brands, and re-positioned brands. She knows that Canadian veterinarians are stressed out, homeowners take mold in their basement as a personal affront, and a proper arc is the key to a successful free kick.

Dave Rodgers
Director of Design
Central Station

A seasoned creative, Dave is a design director and graphic designer who is dedicated to his craft. Throughout his career, Dave has worked on many well-known brands, including Bacardi, Campari, Hudson Bay Company, Lindt & Sprüngli, Molson Coors, Nike, Toronto Blue Jays, and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and has also worked as the creative lead for several award-winning campaigns. Dave has sat on numerous boards in Canada, most currently on Durham College's Advanced Graphic Design Program Advisory Committee.

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.

Elise Cropsal
Creative Director, Design
lg2

Élise has almost 2 decades of design experience. She joined lg2 five years ago and quickly forged her path, becoming a creative director in just 2 years. In the last 5 years, she has won more than 60 awards, both in Quebec and internationally. Her work for Rethink Breast Cancer with its range of Give-A-Care products earned her international recognition, including 2 Cannes Lions in 2017. The following year, she served as president of the Grafika jury, the biggest competition in Quebec that rewards the best in design.

Her love of art and her keen design sense are undisputable. Élise involves herself on many different fronts, feeding her desire to help her field continue to evolve. She invests much of her time in the world of publishing and culture, most notably by sitting on the board of directors of Espace Go, a well-known contemporary theatre, and on the board of the Society of Graphic Designers of Quebec (SDGQ).

Finally, she is the creative force behind many brand identities in various business sectors. These include the new Desjardins logo and the new brand image for the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ).

Shawn Lambino
Director of Design
Anomaly

Shawn Lambino is an award-winning designer with a strong focus on visual identity & concept development.

As the Director of Design at Anomaly, he leads a department of multi-disciplinary designers with a focus on elevating the agency’s visual output, growing design capabilities and specializing in branding projects. He works across a number of the agency’s core clients and new business including Nike, Budweiser, Sportchek, Bombardier Recreational Products and Dosist.

Noel Nanton
Founder, Creative Director
Typotherapy

Noël Nanton is the founder and Creative Director at typotherapy. Noël has more than two decades of experience as a senior designer, thirteen of those years as a Creative Director. He has worked on many projects from such diverse sectors as architecture, arts and entertainment, education, fashion, financial services, government, health and medical, not-for-profit and retail. Noël is known for his captivating and effective design solutions, in print and digital, with a strong emphasis on typography, attention to detail, conceptual thinking and innovative production. His unparalleled, award-winning graphic design and typography work has been documented in many design anthologies around the world and he has received national and international recognition throughout his career.

Andrew Passas
Creative Director, Design
One Twenty Three West

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.

Jensen Tsoi
Agency Partner, Vice President Creative
Dyversity Communications Inc.

Born in Hong Kong, Jensen moved to the United Kingdom, aged 3. He honed his craft in London, achieving a BA(Hons) Degree in Graphic Design from the London College of Communication.

After a spell working in London for design hot-shops on accounts such as Laura Ashley, Marks & Spencer and Toshiba, he moved to Hong Kong, taking up senior roles with Advertising and Design Agencies including Alan Chan Design, Batey Ads, FCB and Leo Burnett. During his time in Asia, he worked on regional accounts such as Microsoft, Reebok, Cathay Pacific, Standard Chartered Bank and Mandarin Hotels, winning numerous national and international awards along the way, including a One Show Gold for his work on Levi’s.

After landing in Toronto 2013, Jensen joined Dyversity Communications and became Agency Partner in 2018. He currently plays a major role on accounts such as Bell Canada, Canada Post, Ontario Lotteries OLG, and RBC Royal Bank, helping Dyversity maintain its position as a leading multicultural agency.

Nitin Bagga
COO and Chief Strategy Officer
Barrett and Welsh

Engineer of strategic excellence and planning boffin, Nitin has 15+ years of experience in marketing, advertising and strategy. As the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Strategy at BarrettandWelsh, he leads all communications strategy, brand strategy and analysis, market & competitive analysis and project management.

During the course of his career he has worked on a wide range of clients and projects including:

TD Bank, Walmart Canada, Allstate, CAA/Orion Travel Insurance, Aeroplan, Tide, Olay, Febreze, Pantene, Bounty, Gillette, Duracell, Crest, Petro Canada, Deeley Harley Davidson, Frito Lay, Kraft Foods, Pepsi Canada, Manulife Financial, Pizza Pizza, The Hunger Project, True Patriot Love Foundation, Freshco, vivaNext, Brampton Transit, Barrie Transit, Niagara Region Economic Development, Brampton Economic Development. 

He earned his degree in engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and, after a stint absorbing the marketing ethos that enriches Cincinnati air, did his MBA at Rotman School of Management. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, and St. Lawrence College; and is a founding member of the Multicultural Marketing Alliance Canada. He is a volunteer member of the board of directors for the Aurora Cultural Centre, a non-profit arts and culture organization. 

He is an award-winning planner with multiple wins for Summit Marketing Effectiveness Awards, and a Midas Award for Financial Advertising. He has been ranked as a top 200 planner in Canada by Strategy Magazine Creative Report Card.

Despite many years of management consulting, leading teams and consensus-building, Nitin hates to lose an argument – but routinely concedes defeat to his 12-year-old daughter. 

Iris Chen
Multicultural Marketing Strategist

Iris is a multicultural marketing strategist with 20+ years of experience managing integrated marketing campaigns. Her passion for cultural dynamics and writing helps her tell compelling stories for clients and brands, and develops winning strategies to engage a variety of communities. She is the driving force behind Intriguing Connections and a board member of Theatre As a Second Language.

Linda Cheung
Creative Lead, Chinese Markets
Maple Diversity Communications

Linda Cheung is Old-School fresh talent. Linda holds a BFA from the University of Toronto and started as Webmaster before fully submerged into graphic design. Her work is motivated by a strong belief in problem solving through design, transforming abstract ideas into tangible realities. After nearly 2 decades working in branding, packaging and print, Linda joined Maple Diversity in 2018, to expand her knowledge in multicultural marketing and advertising. 

In 2019, Linda led the creative conceptualization of the Porsche “Pink Pig” CNY campaign which received several awards including the Summit International awards for Best Integrated campaign against over 4700 submissions from 29 countries.

Loretta Lam
Chief Strategist
Focus Communications Inc

Loretta Lam is founder and Chief Strategist of Focus Communications Inc. www.focuscomms.com

Established in 1994, the award-winning agency offers strategic counsel and marketing communication services, 360 multicultural marketing, and diversity and cultural training to client corporations in North America and Asia.

With over two decades of professional experience in marketing communications, Loretta has formerly held management and consultant positions at leading multinational firmsHill & Knowlton CanadaandOgilvy Asia.

Loretta is a frequent speaker, article contributor, and a pioneer of 360 Multicultural Marketing.

Some of her award-winning client projects include: Integrated multicultural marketing and branding for Clover Leaf, Alzheimer Society and TD Bank Group, and establishing the PepsiCo North American Asian Advisory Council; conducting CEO media tours for Sun Life and General Motors; branding and national launch for ORBIS and Bell; media and B2B relations programs for Ernst & Young Management Consultants in Canada and the U.S.A.; Canadian launch of Industrial Commercial Bank of China and O-Connect “One Belt One Road” centre, and Metropolitan Hotels’ B2B campaign in New York and Shanghai.

In 1995, when she was president of Chinese Canadian Advertising Marketing Media Association, she instigated a series of initiatives to convince the mainstream industry associations, media and corporate marketers about the burgeoning potential of diversity marketing, which led to the emergence of the annual multicultural marketing report and award events.

Loretta’s affiliations include: Board of Governors of York University; Advisor, TRIEC Professional Immigrant Networks; Senior Advisor, North American Association of Asian Professionals; Director and Past President of Multicultural Marketing Alliance of Canada; Advisor and Past President Chinese Canadian Advertising Marketing & Media Association; Honorary Advisor, Taiwan Entrepreneurs Society Taipei – Toronto. She is also an active contributor and member of International Association of Business Communicators and Canadian Marketing Association. She is currently working with a few leading industry associations on mentorship programs and industry best practice and advocacy.

Loretta is a winner of the ACCE Entrepreneur Awards in 1998, and been invited to numerous industry awards judge panels, including the Blue Ribbon Judge Panel of the 2017 IABC global Gold Quill Communications Awards in San Francisco, and speaking at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, CIBC World Markets’ Conference on Retail Marketing, and Marketing Magazine’s Multicultural Conference. Loretta has recently founded a non-profit platform ParentConnect.ca to promote positive parenting.

Zeno Lam
Creative Director
AV Communications

Zeno have over 25 years of experience working in the advertising and design industry. He has been with AVcommunications’ for over 10 years and as creative director, is responsible in overseeing all creatives meet high standards.

Prior to joining AVcommunications, Zeno worked in JWT Hong Kong. In addition to his solid experience in print, TV and graphic design, Zeno is a versatile digital professional – an adept videographer/ editor and a seasoned creator of online experiences. His versatility extends to writing insightful Chinese copy that has won creative awards. Zeno is the lead behind many award-winning artworks from BMW, McCormick, Estee Lauder and World Vision.

Chrisdin Ma
Founder
WowPractice Consulting

Chrisdin started her progressive advertising career in Hong Kong with a number of renowned advertising agencies including Asatsu, Ogilvy & Mather, and J. Walter Thompson.  Over those years, Chrisdin led the creative development and production control for prestigious clients in a great variety of industries like automotive, retail chain, supermarket, property development, and public transit etc.

In 1998, Chrisdin immigrated to Canada, she has been focusing her creative effort on ethnic marketing programs in Toronto. In 2003, she set up her own company, WowPractice Consulting Inc. and affiliate with different prestige ad agencies in Toronto. Her creative flair has supercharged a number of communications campaigns for clients in financial, telecom, Insurance, automotive, PC, and home improvement industries.

Bobby Sahni
Partner & Co-Founder
Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing Inc

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 including Canada Post, Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation, ICICI Bank and Toronto Star. He is Co-Founder and Partner at Ethnicity Matters - 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 has also sat on a variety of advisory boards including Imagine Canada, Seva Food Bank, Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer 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.