2022 Jury
Alexis Bronstorph
Chief Creative Officer
No Fixed Address inc.
Alexis is co-Chief Creative Officer at TAXI, but started her career in advertising at 9 years old, when she did voiceover work for a radio commercial. She was hooked immediately. Since then, Alexis has worked on numerous international award-winning campaigns, creating beautiful, disruptive, and effective work for world class brands across all disciplines. Alexis’ approach to problem solving is rooted in strategy and innovation, aiming to create work that gets noticed, talked about, and shared on your favorite social media platform (take your pick). Most recently, Alexis was named to Adweek’s Creative 100 list for 2021.
Zak Mroueh
Chief Creative Officer & Founder
Zulu Alpha Kilo
During his career, Zak has chaired the Marketing Awards a record three times in three different decades. He has also sat on the jury multiple times, losing many hair follicles along the way. Over the past 13 years, he’s been busy building Zulu Alpha Kilo into a globally awarded 130-person independent. Headquartered in Toronto, his eponymous shop (ZAK = Zulu Alpha Kilo in the NATO phonetic alphabet) was recognized as strategy’s design agency of the year in 2018. Zulu has been awarded strategy Agency of the Year medals in equal measure for its digital and advertising work, winning Silver AOY in 2021. In 2016, Zulu garnered international headlines when it won Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year top honours, the first time a non-U.S. shop had ever won. A year later, Zulu repeated as Ad Age’s International Small Agency of the Year and was recognized again this past year. In 2018, Zak was featured as one of the Top 100 Innovators in Forbes magazine. Prior to founding Zulu, he was a partner and CCO of Taxi Canada and helped lead the agency to a record four strategy agency of the year titles in row. Zak has judged every major awards show numerous times, including Cannes, One Show and D&AD. As Marketing celebrates its 100th year, he’s looking forward to once again co-chairing and celebrating the best work in Canada. In fact, he’s our residential archivist and still has every Marketing awards annual dating back to 1987.
Debbie Chan
Creative Director
Narrative
Debbie Chan is an award-winning creative with more than a decade of experience in the industry. With a background in design, she has spent most of her career as an Art Director before becoming Creative Director at Narrative, working with brands such as Scotiabank, Casey House, White Ribbon, Diageo, General Mills, Volvo, and Salesforce to name a few. She was named Top Art Director by Strategy’s Creative Report Card in 2020, and has won awards in shows including Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Marketing Awards, Applied Arts, CMAs, Communication Arts, and Clios. Debbie has also won second place in her cat's heart for 10 years consecutively, losing every year to her partner. She isn't jealous about it at all.
Chris Dacyshyn
ECD
Bleublancrouge
Chris shares the role of Executive Creative Director with her partner at the independent creative agency Bleublancrouge in Toronto.
For decades, she has been leading efforts that prove consumers are willing to fall in love with brands. From Dove and Nike to Hellmann’s, Huggies and Desjardins, she has helped give countless big brands meaning, purpose and results. She has also seen many of her campaigns snowball around the world and stand the test of time, often for over 10 years.
Chris has always been most proud of her awards for real clients. In fact, her first of many Marketing Awards to come, back in 1990, were for two real clients – Panasonic and The Bank of Bermuda.
Pam Danowski
Creative Director
GUT Toronto
Pam Danowski is a Creative Director at GUT Toronto. Throughout her career, she has worked on campaigns for Dove, American Express, Huggies, Kotex, Pizza Hut, and Tim Hortons.
Her work has been recognized by Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Clios, Communication Arts, The Marketing Awards, and more. In 2021, the One Club named her one of the Next Creative Leaders.
When she isn’t coming up with ideas, Pam loves to indulge in terrible reality TV and hang out with her dog, who may (or may not) be named after a reality TV star.
Israel Diaz
Founder + Chief Alchemist
Sunday+Night
Israel is a 25+ year creative professional and business leader. He started his career as Designer/Art Director and steadily moved up the ranks to Chief Creative Officer to lead some of the most renowned and awarded Agencies: Y&R, David&Goliath, Leo Burnett, Lowe Roche, Cossette, GJP and Bozell. Prior to founding Sunday+Night, Israel was Chief Creative and Design Officer at Jackman Reinvents, a hybrid Management Consulting and Design Firm. Sunday+Night is a boutique Strategic and Creative firm, intent on practicing the Alchemy of Being, Business and Brand – with a mission to help purpose-driven Visionaries create their biggest, boldest, most beautiful dent in the universe.
Throughout his career, Israel has been fortunate to have contributed to the business success of some of the world’s most iconic organizations: Nike, McDonald’s, Samsung, Stella Artois, Mercedes-Benz, Visa, Kia Motors, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, P&G, Land Rover, Ford, Pillsbury, General Mills and Kellogg’s to name a few.
His work had been consistently recognized at the most respected international award shows including: D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show, Clios, London International, Andys and Communication Arts. Israel was also honored as the #4 Top Creative Director globally by the Big Won Report. And he has in his possession a coveted D&AD Black Pencil for Digital – a history-making, first ever Black Pencil win for Canada.
Glen D'Souza
Executive Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors
Glen D’Souza began his career in advertising as an Art Director back in 2002. His body work includes award winning campaigns for Ontario Power Generation, Dove, LG Electronics, Trojan, Best Buy, Scotiabank, Walmart, Infiniti, Audi, and The Canadian Real Estate Association.
He’s also a member of Forsman’s Global Inclusion Taskforce, working with other offices within the network in identifying ways to promote diversity and inclusion through discussion and action.
Rica Eckersley
Executive Creative Director
DDB Canada
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.
Alex Gadoua
National Group Creative Director, McDonald's
Cossette Communication Inc
"After being a DJ for 10 years, my mom told me to get a serious job. That's how I landed in advertising... She still doesn't think I have a serious job". Nonetheless, Alexandre has created national and international campaigns working with clients like the National Bank, Danone, Ford, Reitmans, Viagra, TELUS, IA insurance, Bombardier and McDonald’s. Clients find he’s an attentive listener and colleagues respect him for his talent as well as his capacity to recognize great ideas and defend them to the end. His sharp wit, leadership skills and direct manner when facing challenges have all helped him carve out a solid reputation in the industry. After more than twenty years of creativity in advertising, the thing Alex is most proud of is his ability to stay passionate and down to earth at the same time.
Stephen Jurisic
Creative Dean
Miami Ad School Toronto
Stephen is the Dean of the Miami Ad School Canada.
Stephen's career began as an Art Director 28 years ago. Along his journey, he was fortunate to work at some of the best agencies in Canada winning numerous awards in pretty much every show in the world before co- founding john st. (with Angus Tucker) in 2001.
He fostered a entrepreneurial spirit that john st. called the GRRR. Creating a culture where anyone can thrive as long as they do it as a team and keep their ego in check. The work john st. did to promote their agency: “Catvertising," “Buyral," and “Pink Ponies a Case Video” became the viral buzz of the ad industry and quickly attracted new clients and helping john st. grow to become one of the pre-eminent brand agencies in Canada. After 17 years of mentoring people within the agency, Stephen felt it was time to coach the next generation moving on to become the Dean of the Miami Ad School Toronto and spread the GRRR.
Joanna Monteiro
Chief Creative Officer
Publicis
41 Lions at Cannes, including a Grand Prix in Mobile. Among many other great awards like D&AD, Clio, OneShow. In 2014 she was named " Woman of the Year" by Advertising Age, "The number 1 creative woman in the world” by the Business Insider, "Top 5 most awarded creative directors in the world” by the Big Won Report, and she was the only Brazilian in the "creativity 50" from Ad Age. She was the President of the Mobile category at the Cannes Lions Festival of creativity and president at D&AD in the new media and innovation category in 2018 and president of Direct 2020, among many other creative festivals. Joanna is part of the D&AD advisory Board in London.
Together with her team, she developed projects such as the nivea solar charger, the Nivea protective bracelet, the Nivea Doll, the Speaking Exchange for CNA, the Corruption Converter for O Estadao, the trending Botics for the Congresso em Foco website. Among other integrated works created on new platforms that use technology and innovation to connect brands in a more emotional way with their consumers.
Joanna began her professional advertising career as a copywriter trainee at Ogilvy (1996), and worked as a copywriter at DPZ , W/Brasil, Africa Advertising, FCB The product of two academic powerhouses, Joanna graduated with an Arts degree from Brasilia University (UnB), and earned her postgraduate degree in Advertising & Marketing from ESPM, one of Brazil’s first institutes of higher learning, known for academic excellence in communication and marketing.
Carlos Moreno
Partner & Chief Creative Officer
Broken Heart Love Affair
Carlos is one of the most decorated Creative Directors in Canada. He has been most notably awarded the prestigious Grand Prix award at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. As an Art Director, he was twice included in the Top Ten list globally by The Gunn Report. He was also ranked the number one Creative Director in Canada on the Strategy Magazine Creative Report Card in 2018 and 2019, making that the third time in his career. Under his leadership, Cossette (his previous agency), was named Canadian Agency of the Year by Strategy Magazine from 2016 to 2018. He brought the same honour to BBDO in 2011. In each case, they were firsts for the agencies.
Before founding Broken Heart Love Affair, Carlos was Global Chief Creative Officer at Cossette where he ran a variety of blue-chip accounts, including McDonald’s, General Mills, SickKids, Canopy Growth, Canada Goose and Public Mobile. He has also worked as an Art Director and Creative Director in Toronto and New York for McCann, Saatchi and Downtown Partners DDB.
A native of Guatemala, Carlos was named one of the most Influential Hispanics in Canada by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Board for the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.
Jenny Smith
President & Executive Creative Director
Ray Agency
With 25 years in the advertising and marketing business, Jenny is no stranger to creating internationally recognized, award-winning advertising. She is Atlantic Canada’s most decorated creative person, winning literally hundreds of gold and platinum national and international awards and accolades over the course of her career. She’s the owner and President of Ray - an independent agency based in St. John’s, launched in 2013. Jenny has judged every regional and national award show in Canada (sometimes more than once). And has had the good fortune to judge international shows including Cannes (2009 and 2018) and LIA. She lives in St. John’s with her husband, two teens, and Nacho, the cat.
France-Michèle Thomas
Senior Director
Citoyen
France-Michèle brings more than 18 years of experience in brand building and marketing communications to Citoyen.
France-Michèle has established a solid career during which she has helped shape the unique visions of her numerous clients, of how to give them shape, and deepened her knowledge of the dynamics of the cultural landscape. Her insights have allowed her to create dialogues between brands and their target audiences that are integrated across traditional and digital platforms. She has shown her acumen, working on strategies and launches for clients such as Molson, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Loblaws, Tourism Australia, Volkswagen and L'Oréal to name a few.
France-Michèle is a dynamic, engaged and an avid consumer of all things news and culture.
Rachel Abrams
Group Creative Director
Jackman
Rachel Abrams knows everything - or at least tries to. Her insatiable curiosity and keen strategic thinking are what she brings to all her work. This kind of big thinking has helped build some of Canada’s biggest brands. She's even won some big awards like Cannes, One Show, and of course Marketing. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., and was included in Phaidon’s "A Smile In The Mind".
She values human insights above all and is focused on brand storytelling that connects with both the head and heart. Her style is extremely collaborative – a true partner in bringing bold brand vision to life. Rachel is currently leading all things advertising as Group Creative Director at Jackman.
Maxinne Abuyuan
Chief Experience Officer
Wunderman Thompson
Maxinne Abuyuan is Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Wunderman Thompson Canada.
Her career path has always been in digital customer experience (DCX), from content to digital campaigns to commerce to enterprise-level platforms. With almost 15 years of experience design thinking, Maxinne has built industry-leading digital-first experiences for top national brands such as TD, Mazda, VW, IBM, American Express, and Kruger.
Maxinne has built her award-winning career by constantly evolving her creative thinking alongside advancing technology. She takes an intersectional approach to designing growth-driving digital experiences and products, advocating for innovation, accessibility, and inclusivity. Her leadership style is grounded in empathy and a commitment to fostering diverse team environments where everyone can show up as their authentic selves.
Athina Afton Lalljee
Associate Creative Director
McCann Worldgroup Canada
Athina joined McCann Toronto at the start of 2021 after spending a decade in Dubai where she worked with some of the most coveted brands and international talent at Ogilvy, Grey, Y&R and JWT. Her work for iconic brands like LEGO and Coca-Cola has been recognized at numerous award shows – including Cannes Lions, D&AD and the New York Festivals.
Today, she continues to put the work first with her fiercely ego-free approach to creativity on Kids Help Phone, L’Oréal and everything in between.
Jung Ahn
Creative Director
dentsu One
Jung Ahn is a Creative Director at dentsu One. Having been in the industry for over 15 years, she has worked at a wide range of award-winning agencies, ranging from specialized boutiques to multi-national institutions in Toronto, New York, LA and Seoul. She has collaborated and strategized with household brands, including Honda, GM, BMW, Audi, UNIQLO, Shiseido, CIBC, BMO, Samsung, Miele, McDonald’s, Arterra Wines and P&G, in creating cross-platform campaigns that have expand their reach with target audiences. Her work has been recognized and landed her awards in shows, such as D&AD, One Show, ADCC, Marketing, and Applied Arts
During her downtime, she collaborates with creative thinkers at NEW INC developing various creative projects outside of the advertising world and has been invited to speak at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute as a guest lecturer.
Sarandha Alvares
Art Director
Freelance
I'm an Art Director with 15 years of experience in Advertising. I see the world in pixels, layers and layouts. I hear colours, I feel design and I breathe vectors. My head is always brimming with quirky ideas and insane what ifs.
In Grade 2, I made a "Miss you" card for my mom and ever since all I knew was that I was going to be a designer at Hallmark greetings. That dream and determination carved my path to Fine Arts College (B.F.A) grabbing a Gold medal as a topper of the batch. Later my love for caricatures and book illustrations landed me a Diploma in Art, Book Illustration and Graphics, which helped me become an active member of Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) for over 3 years at Children’s Book Trust.
I've designed my way through Toronto, Dubai, Mumbai and New Delhi. That's North America, Middle East and South Asia. My experience includes traditional, digital, social and integrated advertising. I’ve also struck metal at One Show, New York Festivals, Dubai Lynx and Toronto Marketing Awards.
I’m talented, diligent, painfully detail-oriented, and Ms. Efficient.
Nishachar (google it), is my middle name.
I am a super mom to two little rascal boys. This means I’m awesome at multi-tasking.
Simon Au
Executive Creative Director
The Kitchen
Simon has worked in both award winning multi-national agencies and small boutique start-ups, such as John St., Taxi, Rethink, & Zulu Alpha Kilo, he has won internationally in shows such as Cannes, CLIOS, ADC and the One Show. His roster of brands is as diverse as the awards; it includes Kraft Heniz, No Name, Uber, Coca-Cola, Audi, TUMS, Molson, Visa to P&G. From his leadership, he has led the creative work for multiple national brands at the same time. His approach to creativity and technology has generated a lot of cultural buzz throughout the years and has been featured in places such as Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, HypeBeast, Fast Company and he even got a bill proposed in the Canadian parliament.
Jinnean Barnard
Strategic Communications Consultant
Freelance
Jinnean is an independent strategic communications consultant and content strategist with a wealth of experience helping organizations create strong messaging and smart strategies to guide thought leadership content.
She currently works for a terrific group of clients in higher education, government, design, and professional services that appreciates her breadth of expertise, strategic counsel, collaborative approach, and (so far) sense of humour.
Previously, Jinnean held Creative Director, Content Strategist, and Senior Writer roles at agencies such as MacLaren McCann, Cossette, BBDO, and others for a wide range of accounts including TD Canada Trust, RBC, Rogers, Microsoft, World Vision, General Motors, and Canopy Growth Corporation. She also co-led CRM teams at Cossette on award winning work for Sick Kids Foundation.
Jinnean is passionate about the need to communicate about the climate crisis and is exploring advertising and marketing’s role in fuelling–and fixing–climate change.
Zachary Bautista
Creative Director
Rethink
Zachary Bautista is a Creative Director at Rethink. He is among AdAge’s 2021 40 Under 40 as well as a part-time instructor at Miami Ad School. From art school dropout to one of the most consistently recognized creatives in Canada his work has been awarded at every major international award show including Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, Clios, and the Marketing Awards, just to name a few.
Matt Bielby
Creative Director & Partner
Here Be Monsters
Matt launched Here Be Monsters in the fall of 2017 after working at TAXI, Rethink and Grey Worldwide. With his partners Tony Hird and Chris Raedcher, the Vancouver-based team builds (or rebuilds) brands to take them to new and better places.
Matt’s work has been internationally awarded at Cannes Lions, the Clios, Communication Arts, and nationally at the Marketing Awards, the CASSIES, ADCC, and Applied Arts, plus his work has been featured in the Globe and Mail and New York Times.
Derek Blais
SVP, Executive Creative Director
BBDO Canada
Derek has been solving problems using creativity from a young age. Having attended a high school bearing Marshall McLuhan’s name, Derek became immersed in media theory, technology and all things Adobe. After starting his own company in high school and entering the ad world as a developer, Derek worked his way up, becoming the #1 Art Director in Canada along the way and regardless of having never attended university, gave a TEDx talk on creativity and collaboration at one. He is currently the SVP, Executive Creative Director at BBDO Canada.
His human-centric approach to the work and creative leadership are lauded by both his colleagues and his clients, with his work and the work of his teams having been recognized at every major national and international award show.
He shares the same Forbes 30 Under 30 list as fellow Torontoian Drake and as a proud member of Onedia Nation of the Thames, he’s been calling this land home since time immemorial. Outside of advertising, Derek’s photography has been featured at Art Basel, his music videos have been recognized in Cannes and his most recent creative project, a seasonal restaurant on Georgian Bay landed him on the cover of Cottage Life magazine.
Alex Boland
Design Director
Sid Lee
Alex Boland is a multidisciplinary designer with a focus on branding, visual identity, and cultural impact through creativity. Currently a Design Director at Sid Lee Toronto, he has developed some of their highest profile and most awarded projects in his 7+ year history with the agency, including We The North, Black Lives Matter, and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Before joining Sid Lee, he cut his teeth at Champions Design in New York City, helping create work for the WNBA, The High Line, and The Museum for African Art.
He is a two-time winner of the Canadian Young Lions Competition, and his work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, One Show, and the ADCC, among others.
Bia Breves
Executive Creative Director
Track DDB
From the very beginning, Bia has balanced her innate curiosity with a passion for highly honed craft.
After starting her career as an illustrator, animator, and mural painter, Bia founded and ran her own agency in her home country of Brazil for over 13 years, building up an impressive client roster including brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Embraer, and AkzoNobel.
In 2014, she took a leap and brought her curiosity and proactive grassroots attitude to Toronto where she joined TrackDDB as a freelance art director, working her way up to Executive Creative Director in just 7 years. Her creative leadership on world-class brands such as JetBlue, Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Kraft Heinz, Samsung, and Scotiabank has led TrackDDB to experience its most award-winning period yet, with recognition from the CMAs, ECHOs, Caples, Recall Magazine and Applied Arts.
A fierce believer in strategic and collaborative approaches, Bia remains true to her hands-on, pixel-perfect roots, while striving to bring creative excellence to every touchpoint and fighting for work that grows brands through meaningful experiences.
Fernando Muto Brevilieri
Creative Director
Critical Mass
Fernando is a Brazilian-Italian creative currently working as Creative Director at Critical Mass, doing all things digital for AT&T. Before moving to Canada, he lived in Brazil, USA, Sweden and Russia (still trying to find the coldest place on Earth). As an art director and creative director, Fernando worked on local and international projects for brands like VISA, P&G, AT&T, Nissan, Amazon, 3M, Kelloggs and TD Bank. Some of them received recognition from creativity festivals such as Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, The Webby Awards, ADCE and others.
Jonathan Careless
Chief Creative Officer
Narrowcontent
Jonathan is a creative director with more than two decades of experience in all advertising mediums except shopping cart handles. Fresh out of Humber and a month into his internship, Jonathan had his computer taken away by his CFO (Erwin Buck) for sending too many all-staffs. Jonathan’s passion for mass marketing was insatiable. Since then, his love for the ad industry has only grown as he’s watched it change from traditional, to digital, to case study videos.
Jonathan’s work has been recognized by every national and international award show except D&AD. It’s too hard. Jonathan’s been fortunate to work with a wide range of clients including MINI, IKEA, the Special Olympics, McDonald’s and Air Canada. He’s been ranked as high as #1 copywriter on Strategy’s Creative Report Card and as low as 387th. Jonathan dislikes crowds, walking, and direct sunlight.
Rana Chatterjee
Creative Director
lg2
Rana Chatterjee is an award-winning creative director whose work has been recognized globally by Cannes, the One Show, ESPN, Complex and Billboard. He’s most excited by ideas that don’t fall into the traditional advertising landscape.
High on his list of accomplishments the Parkscapes campaign for the Regent Park School of Music, getting a non-profit Toronto music school sampled on Taylor Swift’s Lover.
When he’s not drowning in briefs, his musical side endeavours are busy attracting the attention of luminaries like Questlove and Beck.
He’s done time at TAXI, McCann, BBDO and most recently joins lg2 as Creative Director.
Randy Diplock
Director/Writer/Owner
Harding Station Uncorporate Video
Being called a “renaissance man” irritates Randy. Ignoring the fact that it’s accurate, it’s a term far too precious for his liking and the blue collar background he comes from.
Some say (even those not related to him) that Randy’s breadth of experience on the creative side of things is unparalleled in this industry.
He was an accomplished art director who became an even more accomplished writer (was named top writer in the business by Strategy Magazine and taught it at OCAD) and instead of resting on his laurels, decided to direct instead.
Randy’s directed more than 300 commercials over the years, amongst other things, on his way to recently starting a new venture, Harding Station Uncorporate Video. In addition to writing, art directing and directing, he now also shoots and edits.
All this may sound impressive but he’ll be the first to tell you that anyone can do all these things. What matters is the level of quality you do them on. The effectiveness.
With Harding Station, he’s now taking these skills and experience directly to clients and a segment of the market that sorely needs higher quality corporate video. Video that people actually want to watch. Imagine that.
All of the above is pretty impressive but when asked what he’s proudest of he says, “not being a jackass to deal with.”
Stephen Flynn
Creative Director
Wunder
After working in multiple agencies in Atlantic Canada, Stephen realized he was not getting the opportunity to do work he was truly passionate about. So in 2017 he co-founded Wunder. He believes that every brief is an opportunity to do something great, regardless of the client or budget size. In just 4 years he helped take a 2-person agency with no clients, to one of the top 20 ranked agencies in Canada. Along the way, his work has won numerous awards, been covered by some of the biggest publications around the world, and garnered over 300 million earned media impressions for Wunder's clients. More recently, Stephen’s “Recalling Cards” campaign for Relief was named one of the top 25 ads of the year by Adweek.
Raul Garcia
Executive Creative Director
Angry Butterfly
Raul is an internationally awarded Executive Creative Director / Instructor (Miami Ad School) with over 22 years of experience working for agencies in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. His work has been featured on the front page of the Toronto Star, landed on the front page of Reddit (twice), was spoofed by the Canadian television satire comedy show The Mercer Report, has been the subject of international news and talk radio, and has been blogged by numerous celebrities including 50 cent, Pharrell Williams, Rosario Dawson and Zoe Kravitz. For one of his most recent projects, Raul and team created an experiential idea that inspired Lizzo to create artwork painted with her backside. Outside of advertising, Raul is a big video game junkie. In 2013, he was ranked 51st overall in Call of Duty Black ops 2 (for about 15 minutes).
Jonathan Guy
Group Creative Director
Leo Burnett
Jonathan is an award-winning Art Director and Creative Director who has worked at leading global agencies such as BBDO and Leo Burnett as well as internationally respected Canadian agencies TAXI and Cossette. Throughout his 13 year career he has helped numerous brands solve business problems through leadership, strategy and creative thinking which has led to awards from advertising's most recognized shows. He has also been a part of five Strategy Agency of The Year teams: BBDO (2011), Leo Burnett (2014), Cossette (2016, 2017, 2018).
Vanessa Harbec
Conceptrice-Rédactrice
Havas Montreal
Vanessa has been working in advertising since 2012.
She started out on the Client Services team, calling contest winners and delivering pizzas around Montréal as part of a promotion. At that time, she never dreamed her work would one day be recognized at Communication Arts, the Epica Awards, Atomic, Applied Arts, IDEA, among others.
Throughout her career, she had the pleasure of working with well-known brands that include Desjardins, Opéra de Montréal, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, and A&W, to name just a few.
Her colleagues often joke that they would love to be her for a day just to see how her mind works.
When she’s not brainstorming innovative ideas, you can find her fully immersed in DIY projects.
(Interested in exploring the inner workings of her mind? Use promo code: MIND).
Marta Hooper
Executive Creative Director
Doug&Partners
Marta Hooper joined doug&partners with an enviable portfolio of brands under her belt and has spent the last 19 years mastering a multi-disciplinary approach at trevor//peter, Sid Lee and Taxi, to name a few.
As a creative leader, Marta has dedicated her craft to creating culturally on point, creatively distinct, and results-driven work for a host of global and lifestyle brands such as Nike, Spotify, Foot Locker, Nissan, Ford, Dell, Telus, Red Bull, Diageo, Labatt and HBO.
In her past life Marta was a race car driver, and when she’s not creative directing or stunt driving, she spends her time influencing the minds of industry hopefuls as a Professor at the George Brown College School of Design.
Shawn James
Art Director
Freelance
Shawn James is passionate about two things. Ink and Daggers. Ink because of its connection to art and creativity—dip anything in ink and it becomes an implement for creativity. And daggers because, well, knives are cool.
Shawn is also passionate about Art Direction and has won just about every award in the industry, he just doesn’t like to talk about it in the third person.
Irfan Khan
Creative Director
Freelance
Throughout his career, Irfan has worked relentlessly to develop relationships with clients and peers throughout the industry. He has championed and developed breakthrough work to help build both local and international brands from charities to global pharma, and has demonstrated his love for brand communication and it’s ever-changing landscape with thinking that transcends conventional media.
Demonstrating again and again that big ideas bring big results, Irfan’s work has earned him global recognition from shows such as Cannes, the One Show, the 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.
Beyond award-winning work, Irfan takes pride in the results his contributions have garnered for his clients. He has helped earn multiple clients Marketer of the Year and Cassies.
Scott Lew
Creative Director
OneMethod
Scott’s background in writing and creative direction spans from radio shows, video games and comic books, to TV commercials, mobile apps, websites and non-linear digital experiences. With a specialization in interactive storytelling and digital content, he’s worked with such brands as ViacomCBS, Chevrolet, Ford, GM, Rogers, TELUS, Microsoft, Red Hat, Adobe, Samsung, lululemon, Wendy’s, Burger King and Canadian Tire. Currently, Scott is a Creative Director at OneMethod.
Hayley Malcho
Design Director, Health
No Fixed Address
Hayley is a Design Director at NFA (No Fixed Address), leading design in their Health sector, working on clients such as Eli Lilly, Janssen, AstraZeneca, Leo Pharma, Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson. Previous to her experience in Health, over the past 18 years, she’s worked on clients such as Honda, Kia, Labatt, Telus, HSBC, Medcan, Public Mobile, Fallsview Casino, Sobeys, and Seneca College.
Hayley does not back down from a work challenge, and her abundant organizational skills ensure that every aspect of a given challenge is covered. Her obsession with colour and contrast comes through not only at work, but in her personal life as well — just ask her tattoos.
If you don’t find her at her desk, you likely won’t find her easily, as she will be out travelling the world (when it’s safe for all again, of course).
Michael Mayes
Writer/Creative Director
Freelance
Michael began his career as an advertising writer 20+ years ago in his hometown of Calgary. Shortly thereafter, he arrived in Toronto where he worked his way up the ranks at DDB, McCann and TAXI. In 2005, after years of pining for the West and realizing his ski legs had turned to mush, Michael moved to Vancouver. In 2006, he became Creative Director of TAXI Vancouver, growing the office from zero to 25 people. Since 2010, Michael has been freelancing for various agencies and clients, while writing longer stories during his off-hours. Along the way, his work has been recognized at Cannes, The One Show, London International Advertising Awards, New York Festivals and has garnered numerous awards within Canada. Also, for what it’s worth, he’s only judgy when it’s part of the job.
Chris Mcgroarty
Copywriter
Freelance
Chris McGroarty began his copywriting career working on the Sears catalogue, typing copy onto pica sheets, carefully counting characters. Eventually, he moved to Cossette writing primarily for Bell Mobility. Then to Leo Burnett to work on the Bell pitch, which they lost to Cossette. Then to JWT where he worked on Kraft and Unilever. Then to FCB to work on Kraft. Then to Y&R, to work on Ford. Chris then began his own agency, Jimmy, which folded into Uncommon. Then Chris jumped client side to work on a fintech startup. Then to a pet supplement startup. He now writes copy for financial institutes and telecoms, carefully counting characters again.
Troy McGuinness
Group Creative Director
FCB
For almost 25 years, Troy has been creating, crafting and commiserating around the hardships of making great ads.
He started his career as an Art Director and has been lucky enough to work with many talented people at some of Toronto’s top agencies, where he has been able to glean some insights into how this whole thing works (though he is the first to admit that he is always learning). While traversing the advertising landscape in Toronto, he has also been fortunate enough to have some of his work recognized by every major award show around the globe. He is currently heading up Sobeys, Lotto 6/49, and Clorox at FCB Toronto.
Troy likes Red Bull, and records, and his family.
Ian Mirlin
Creative Director
Crowdiate
Ian Mirlin is a veteran of the Canadian advertising business.
His resume is a rare and deep one, spanning five decades in agencies both local and multi-national as a copywriter and Creative Director and ultimately co-owner of Harrod & Mirlin,a highly regarded creative agency established in 1987, ultimately purchased by Foote Cone Belding where he was appointed President of the merged companies.
Ian’s experience has been forged in virtually every category of the advertising business and his work has won awards in major shows all over the world.
Ian is a partner/CD at Crowdiate –a select global community of diverse creative talent, and a part-time instructor in copywriting at OCAD University since 2007.
Ian is the fortunate recipient of the Toronto Art & Design Club’s Usherwood Award, honouring lifetime achievement in creative excellence.
Gira Moin
Associate Creative Director
Juniper Park\TBWA
Gira is an art school graduate with a degree in design and advertising. In her career, she's worked at a multitude of high-profile agencies and carries over 12 years of experience working on some of Canada’s top brands like BMO, Budweiser, Google, CIBC and Air Canada.
From creating engaging social campaigns, crafting pieces of film, concepting innovative activations and even designing phone apps, Gira has created a body of work that reflects the human experience with brands on all channels.
Michael Murray
Founding Partner, Creative
Berners Bowie Lee
Before co-founding Berners Bowie Lee, Michael was a copy writer and executive creative director at agencies in the UK, Canada and US. He's won Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, Clios and every Canadian award many times over as well as effective awards on both sides of the Atlantic. He co-founded BBL so he could work with brands who represent where the world is going, not where it has been.
Alanna Nathanson
Co Founder & Chief Creative Officer
Giants & Gentlemen
Alanna is one of those rare creatives that actually loves business, so...she started one.
Pre-G&G, she’s grown brands in every category, while winning a multitude of top industry awards.
10 years in, she’s proud to have built G&G into an A-list indie shop, which has won both creative accolades as well as business ones, including Top Employer for Young People 4 years in a row and Canada’s Growth 500 for fastest growing companies.
While overseeing meaningful, memorable work that drives success, she has also taught and mentored at the Miami Ad school, and is co-creator of The Mighty Women.
Keli Pollock
Creative Director
Daughter Creative
DAUGHTER Advertising & Design Creative Director and 2021 Advertising Awards judge Keli Pollock’s well of creativity runs deeper than most. She’s a traditional art director by trade but her skill set doesn’t begin and end with the stroke of a keyboard. Away from the screen, is where Keli gets to truly embrace craft. Pottery, photography, and most recently painting, keep her inspired. Add to that, a formidable work ethic and a personality that rallies a team, and you have a true creative powerhouse. Her resume features a who’s who of clients—including WestJet, TELUS, The Calgary Stampede, Shaw, and Bow Valley College, and awards and accolades to fill many a trophy case. These days she focuses on helping up-and-coming creatives earn their brass, and doing a tremendous amount to support Calgary’s creative ecosystem. During the pandemic, she organized a much-loved outdoor public art show featuring Alberta artists and illustrators.
Yvette Reitner
Creative Director
The&Partnership
Yvette’s career began 15 years ago in print production—a role that taught her to respect craft from start to finish. From there, she moved on as a designer and Art Director, where experience below and above the line helped her form work on brands like Xbox Canada, Microsoft, Walmart, the Diageo portfolio and 3M to name a few. Currently, Yvette is a Creative Director in Toronto, leading TELUS, Sapporo and Purolator. She’s also won a few awards along the way, but who’s counting.
David Ross
Creative Director
David Ross Creative
David Ross is Creative Director and Chief Custodian at David Ross Creative Inc. Before starting his own corporation (said with air quotes), David honed his craft at DDB Toronto as a writer and CD. He also learned the ropes beforehand at Ogilvy.
David has ranked as high as #2 on Strategy's Creative Report Card and has been recognized at every major show, including Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, LIA, Clios, New York Festivals, as well as the Webby Awards and Contagious Magazine.
This makes his parents proud, but it still doesn’t make him the favourite child.
Laura Rothstein
Creative Director
The Mint Agency
With 12 plus years of agency experience, Laura loves developing compelling creative ideas driven by culturally savvy insights. From integrated campaigns to scrappy initiatives, she’s lead creative for a wide range of clients like Kijiji, Lay’s, RBC, Sobey’s and more. Before advertising, Laura was already deep-diving into culture with an MA in cultural reporting and journalism.
Rose Sauquillo
Creative Director, Art Director
Freelance
Rose is an award-winning creative with over two decades of experience at agencies like TAXI, Leo Burnett, Huge, and Zulu Alpha Kilo. She’s worked on accounts in every category, leading TELUS nationally and rebranding retailers like Reitmans and Mark’s.
Rose also likes to take pictures. She’s made it on Instagram’s suggested user list twice, resulting in content partnerships with Keen Footwear USA, Mont-Tremblant Resort, Sheraton Hotels and Goli Nutrition.
As a freelance Creative Director/Art Director and proud mom, Rose balances her time between agency deadlines and holding up a green screen for her YouTuber son. She also enjoys crafting her IG stories with 80’s themed stickers and ensuring that Justin Bieber consistently makes it to the top of her Spotify Year in Review playlist.
Mark Scott
Creative Director
Klick Health
Mark Scott has worked in the Canadian advertising business at top creative shops TAXI, Zig/CP+B, Rethink and John St. where he honed his skills and creative leadership approach. As a Creative Director and Art Director, Mark’s contributions helped reposition iconic Canadian brands like Home Hardware and Canadian Tire to be relevant in today’s market while also pushing the creative envelope on brands like Molson Coors, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Doctor Oetker. His work has been noticed by national and international award shows like Cannes, The One Show, CLIOs, The Webby Awards and yes, The Marketing Awards. Although Mark hasn’t won as many awards as other jury members, he has won enough to enable him to buy a nice hot tub. One that has 48 powerful jets that work their magic on his back, neck and glutes. And it’s worth mentioning that it came with the new saltwater system and multi-colored LED lighting that creates a wonderful mood in the evening. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners at this year’s Marketing Awards! Mark raises a cold glass of ginger ale to you from his backyard hot tub paradise.
Ron Smrczek
Executive Creative Director
Freelance
Ron got his start in advertising a little earlier than most, starring in a Mr. Christie cookie commercial at the age of 5. But it would take nearly twenty years before he would be on the other side of the camera, as an Art Director in Toronto.
Since then, Ron has made a career from building brands and leading teams. He has worked at some of the best creative agencies in Canada, the US and Europe; on brands such as TELUS, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Kraft, MolsonCoors, Nike, Unilever and Viagra.
Some personal highlights include multiple podium appearances in Cannes, a nod as one of the world’s top five campaigns in The Gunn Report, being ranked as one of the top ten creatives worldwide by Boards Magazine, and an Emmy nomination.
Mario Soriano
Creative Team Lead & Founder
Victory Creative Group
Mario Soriano is Founding Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Victory Creative Group, Inc. Mario leads all brand design & storytelling across Victory’s five (5) creative studios. A Vancouver native, he spearheads the agency’s creative execution for Netflix, Dapper Labs, Google, Nike, ESPN, Canada Basketball, MLSE, Square, Diageo and The NBA. He is also the co-founder of The Vancouver Metro Basketball League, The Vancouver Basketball Foundation and is part of The Vancouver Film School Mentorship Program. Most recently, Mario co-founded and launched SLAM® Canada.
Rob Tarry
Art Director
Freelance
After 20 years at rethink communications as a writer and creative director, Rob has branched out to commercial video directing and freelance creativity. Awards include recognition from the OneShow, Cannes, CA, London International, Strategy and Marketing Magazine.
CLIENTS INCLUDE
Shaw, IKEA, Bell Canada, Science World, Mr. Lube, Real Canadian Superstore, BC Lions, Earls, BC Hydro, Playland, Triple O's, TELUS, Lululemon, Destination BC, Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Creemore Springs , A&W, UBC, Sleeman, Thinkific, COVID Response BC, Coast Capital Savings, Vancouver Canucks, Alpine Credit, Granville Island Brewing, FlyOver Canada, POSTMEDIA, Maclean's Magazine, Slice TV, Fiverr, Tobasco
Julien Thiry
Executive Creative Director
Dentsu McgarryBowen
Work that wins in the world. Julien Thiry was baptised at Cannes, winning at the festival in his first year in advertising. Fifteen years later he continues to pursue marketing excellence, building successful brands with breakthrough memorable work. As Executive Creative Director at dentsuMCGARRYBOWEN, Julien has brought his passion to Yakult, Manulife, Morinaga, Ubisoft, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Bombardier, L’Oreal, Air Transat, Purina, Jeep, and many more. Beyond Cannes, Julien has been an award winner at several major advertising festivals, most recently winning at One Show, and London International Awards.
Jessica Toye
Creative Director Team Lead & Founder
Apple
From kitchens to economics, Jess Toye took the scenic route to advertising. She finds comfort in the unexpected and values work driven by culture and innovation, creating multidisciplinary work that spans from cinematic films, to hacking social platforms, to AR experiences, to reimagining a font.
She's been awarded internationally by all the major shows and recognized as The One Club’s Next Creative Leaders, Ad Age's Creative of the Year, Adweek's Creative 100 and the 4A's 100 People Who Make Advertising Great.
Originally from Toronto, she spent the majority of her career in NYC, but is currently in Los Angeles at Apple.
Wendy Turner
Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy Health
Wendy is the Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy Health, where she has spent the last 7 years helping grow the agency into a major creative healthcare force in Canada. Her career spans over 25 years, beginning at medical illustrator and evolving through art director and creative director positions for a diverse assortment of successful independent and global agencies. Wendy’s creative work has touched on practically every therapeutic category and stakeholder over the years, and has led to multiple international awards, including two prestigious Grand Globals. Most recently she was a jury member for the prestigious 2020-2021 Cannes Lions festival. She has delivered high-profile pharmaceutical HCP and DTC advertising campaigns, locally and internationally, for companies including Merck, Novartis, Bayer, and Pfizer.
She has also worked hard to maintain the ever-elusive work/life balance along the way, for herself and her teams, with a personal focus on children in her life – as a volunteer for a decade with Big Sisters, and as a dedicated mother to two inspiring daughters. Wendy is a leader who emphasizes collaboration across all positions at Ogilvy and has passionately nurtured and pursued one goal her entire career: to help change the face of healthcare marketing by injecting compassion and creativity into every challenge she is given.
Jon Webber
Group Creative Director
MediaMonks
With 20+ years’ experience bringing interactive and digital ideas to life, Jon has dedicated his entire career in advertising to this “non-traditional” space. A true digital native, Jon’s passion for storytelling, love for technology and desire to try something new every day, lie at the heart of every project he touches. Over the years, Jon has served stints at Cossette, TribalDDB, Proximity BBDO, Zulu Alpha Kilo and now as Group Creative Director at Media.Monks Canada. Jon’s creative leadership has earned him national and international recognition for work on brands such Audi, Bell, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Alka-Seltzer, M&Ms, Campbell’s Soup, General Mills, McDonald’s, Labatt, Mott’s, Subaru, Nike, and Gatorade.
Jess Willis
Creative Director
john st.
As far as creatives go, Jess is a little bit different. She started her career almost twenty years ago in digital & design and then made the move into more traditional advertising at ground-breaking agencies like Ogilvy, Cossette & TAXI, and in her tenure at Mosaic as ECD, she transformed the agency into a top 25 showing on Strategy's Creative Report Card - a jump of almost eighty spots. This unique combination of skills, as well as an appetite for learning new disciplines has allowed her to transition easily between clients, departments and projects. Moreover, shaped her into a channel agnostic creative who thinks in problems and solutions over words and pictures. She’s been recognized at Cannes, ADC, One Show, Cassies, ADCC, Marketing, Coupe and Applied Arts. Featured in Lüzers Archive, Fast Company, Wired and Devour and was named a Young Gun in her more formative years. She’s lectured at the Miami Ad School, sat on panels at Brain Station and Humber College and has juried work at the Effies, CMAs, ACE Awards, Marketing, Shopper Innovation & Activation Awards. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you she has an affinity for shoulder pads, a shoe collection that rivals Imelda's, and a love of Nicholas Cage that surpasses both. Currently a CD at john st., she's helping clients remain unignorable in today's modern landscape.
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 Executive Creative Director at Juniper Park\TBWA.
Jenny cofounded Open Chair, the South African industry gender equity initiative and has presented festival master classes on her award-winning Mercedes-Benz campaigns.
She has won golds across all the major international award shows, including nabbing a coveted Grand Prix. She has also been fortunate enough to act as both jury president and judge on numerous occasions at both local and international festivals.
Her finest achievements are daughters, Grace (9) and Ivy (7), who help her maintain her incredibly chic under-eye rings.
Krista Webster
President & CEO
Veritas Communications
Krista Webster is the President & CEO of Veritas Communications and Vice-Chair of a cluster of Stagwell Global (formerly known as MDC Partners) agencies spanning from advertising, shopper marketing to digital and PR.
Collectively, Krista brings more than 20 years of global agency public relations, social media, and influencer marketing experience, working with blue-chip clients in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. A self-professed change agent, Webster is always looking for ways to push the envelope creatively and strategically, consistently striving to innovate ahead of the curve. In early 2019, Webster expanded the Veritas family to include performance-driven influencer co-creation and digital content hub, Meat & Produce (M&P), to strategically bring influencers more fully to the table and fill a digital and e-comms gap she identified in the market.
Credited with managing 50+ million in client portfolios on both sides of the North American border by her late twenties with particular expertise in consumer marketing and pharma, Webster attributes her accelerated success to a strong focus on the integration of PR, digital advocacy, and influencer marketing levers with other below and above the line channels. She believes wholeheartedly that the best ideas are media agnostic born from a unifying insight. The channels you employ – earned, owned, or paid – are secondary to the power of an idea that truly transcends and breaks through.
Webster’s awards and accolades are a testament to her success, hard work and dedication. In addition to her numerous accomplishments, Webster has been named as one of PR Week’s Top 40 Under 40 & Top Women In PR, PRovoke’s Innovator 25 in 2017, and Adweek Brand Star in 2018. In 2021, she was selected as a PR jury at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Marie-Elaine Benoit
Design Director
Sid Lee
Marie-Elaine Benoit is a Lead Creative Director for Sid Lee’s award-winning design and branding team. Since joining the agency in 2002 as a Graphic Designer, she has held a pivotal role, successfully leading multidisciplinary teams and establishing Sid Lee’s first European office.
Over the years, Marie-Elaine has earned numerous awards from the likes of Cannes Lions, One Show, ADC, the Type Directors Club, Applied Arts, Clio Awards, and D&AD. She has also sat on the design juries at Cannes Lions, The One Show, Marketing Awards and Applied Art Awards. Recently,[SMJ1] she was named one of Adweek’s 11 Global Creative Leaders Shaping the World’s Most Inventive Marketing as part of their Top 100 in 2020.
An advocate of creative intelligence in design, Marie-Elaine aims to go beyond the simple realm of aesthetics. Through purpose-driven ingenuity and storytelling, she creates meaningful and relevant work capable of shaping the people and places it envelops.
Jay Chaney
Partner, CSO
Broken Heart Love Affair
A known challenger, Chaney is a founder of Broken Heart Love Affair, a Canadian creative agency focused on brand transformation and brand domination with a focus on bringing the love back to advertising for consumers, clients and the creative community. The agency won Silver Newcomer in Adage’s small agency and won a Cannes Lion on its first project for its first client. The agency has completely changed the structural approach to advertising and is leading the charge on changing the economics of it as well.
He is known for pushing the limits of advertising and redefining and championing the strategy and planning role in Canada. He has contributed to several internationally game-changing and award-winning campaigns; including, KOHO’s Dream Thieves, SickKids VS, Honey Nut Cheerios ‘Bring Back the Bees’, and McDonald’s ‘Our Food Your Questions’, which set a global standard for transparency in advertising. Most recently, he was awarded at Cannes for his contribution to Kruger Products’ ‘Unapologetically Human’ campaign.
Jay is recognized as one of the top planners in the world and was previously CCO at KOHO and CSO at Cossette. He has also held strategy roles at Lg2, Tribal DDB, Critical Mass, and Blast Radius. He is formerly Chair of the Strategy Program at Toronto’s Miami Ad School.
Nancy Crimi-Lamanna
Chief Creative Officer Canada
FCB Toronto
Named by Adweek as one of Toronto’s Brand Stars shaping the city into the creative hub it is today and a CampaignUS 40 over 40, Nancy has helped lead the creative resurgence of FCB – elevating its position to the 2021 Creative Network of the Year at the Cannes Lions, the most awarded agency at the One Show in 2020 and Adweek’s 2020 Global Agency of the Year. Her work has been presented to the UN twice and she also has the distinction of bringing home Canada’s first Integrated, Strategy and Creative Data Cannes Lions. In 2020, her work for the Canadian Down syndrome society was ranked as the 3rd most-awarded campaign globally at the One Show.
Since joining FCB Canada 6 years ago, the agency's creative work has been among the most celebrated and innovative in the industry, including its work for BMW, Bank of Montreal/BMO Harris, Michelob Ultra and the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. This thinking has helped make FCB Canada Media Innovation Agency of the year , 2 years in a row, Digital Agency of the Year, 5 years in a row and the most-awarded Canadian agency at the Clios and Cannes, 3 years in a row.
Beyond creating iconic campaigns, Nancy is an industry thought leader: She's an inaugural member of the Times Up Advertising movement addressing gender inequality and has committed FCB Canada to #FreeTheWork, an effort to diversify talent in production.
Nancy has served on several international juries including the Cannes Lions, Clios, and One Show as well as volunteering her time for industry panels, being on the ADCC advisory board and serving on school advisory boards for advertising students in Canada.
Max Geraldo
Chief Creative Officer
BBDO Canada
Max Geraldo is one of the most awarded Brazilian creatives in his generation having worked throughout his 20+ year career to some of the most iconic agencies in Brazil and in the United States, from where he returned after a four year period in 2020 to take the position of President and Chief Creative Officer at Grey Brasil.
Winner of 63 Cannes Lions, including the first Mobile Grand Prix achieved by Brazil, and of several other awards in every top advertising festival in the world. Having also contributed as a jury member to those, Max helped create important campaigns that transformed businesses in the last decades (among which the “Experimenta” campaign to launch Nova Schin beer and campaigns for Nissan Brasil featuring “Poneis Malditos” that are now part of Brazilian pop culture).
In Brazil, Max worked for agencies such as JWT, AlmapBBDO, DM9DDB, Lew,Lara\TBWA e FCB where he worked for some of the most important brands and advertisers in Brazil and in the world namely Volkswagen, Fedex, Nivea, Pepsi, Adidas, Itaú, Unilever, Mondelez and Nestlé. After two years leading the creative team at FCB Brasil, which became one of the three most awarded agencies in Brazil in 2014 and 2015, Max, one of the top five most awarded art directors in the world (2015) according to The Gunn Report, was invited to join the creative leading team at FCB Chicago. During his tenure, FCB Chicago became in 2016/2017 the most awarded in FCB Network and, for the first time, the agency made it to the Top 10 most awarded agencies in the U.S. That period was also one of important business achievements for FCB Chicago, with the arrival of FCA Fiat Chrysler and Clorox global to the agency.
In the following year, Max joined We Are Unlimited, Omnicom Group’s agency dedicated to McDonald’s in the United States. There, he led as Executive Creative Director the launch of the single biggest communication project for the brand in 2018, the “1,2,3 Dollar Menu” as well as the “Fresh Beef”platform - those were the two most impactful projects for McDonald’s in the decade.
In 2018, Max moves to Arnold Boston to join the leading team who would reach the best creative results for the agency since its creation in 1946, winning Cannes Lions for Leica and Monster.com and making it to the ninth position in the D&AD ranking.
After a year and a half tenure as President of Grey Brazil working for Volvo, P&G, Heineken and other Global brands, Max joined BBDO Canada as Chief Creative Officer in April 2021.
Max is 48 years old, was born in Argentina, grew up in Brazil and is father to Rosa and Lola.
Matt Hassell
Chief Creative Officer
Forsman & Bodenfors
Matt Hassell is the chief creative officer at Forsman & Bodenfors Canada. In addition to leading creative in the Toronto and Montreal offices over the last 8 years, he has sat on several national and international award show juries. His own public service work has been awarded at several national and international award shows as well. Matt regards the role of a judge to balance both the creativity and effectiveness of any submission to ultimately find our very best work as a country. More personally, Matt is simply looking forward to the inspiration that comes along with this gig!
Erin Kawalecki
Chief Creative Officer
Angry Butterfly
Erin opened an agency in the summer of 2020, because the onset of a global pandemic and ensuing economic crisis seemed like a good time to leave her secure job.
She has been recognized at the One Show, Cannes, Communication Arts, London International Awards, The Effies, and by Ad Age for creating one of the top ‘viral’ campaigns in the world (back when you could use that word without getting punched in the face).
As a mom to three young kids, there is, literally, nothing you can’t throw at her.
Allen Kwong
Group Creative Director
TAXI
Allen is an award-winning Creative Director at TAXI Toronto. Having grown up in an immigrant household, he brings a diverse point of view to his advertising, digital and design work—often asking “would my mom understand it?” This one question has helped Allen to create effective and culturally relevant work that has been recognized at shows including the Marketing Awards, One Show, Clios and Communication Arts, among others. His goal is to make impactful and beautiful work while having fun every day.
Lance Martin
Chief Creative Officer
Doner North
Lance is an agency veteran with over 25 years of experience in the industry. At DonerNorth (Formerly UNION) his focus is on creating brand stories that drive conversion and bringing holistic thinking across all points of the customer journey. Before that he spent over a decade at TAXI, where he was integral in the creation of some of the agency’s most iconic work for clients including MINI, Nike, Viagra, and Canadian Tire. His work has been recognized by The Marketing Awards, D&AD, Cannes, the One Show, and more.
Brian Murray
Executive Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Brian was the #1 ranked Creative in Canada on the 2021 One Show rankings. He has won over 400 industry awards – and has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. (Advertising is a business, after all.) Brian has led many breakthrough campaigns for many of the world’s best brands, including the Dove “Courage is Beautiful” campaign, which celebrated front-line healthcare workers, was adapted for 15 global markets, achieved 2 billion+ earned PR views, and won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix trophies.
Angela Sung
Creative Director
Diamond Integrated Marketing
Angela Sung is a Creative Director at Diamond Marketing Group and has worked at some of the top ad agencies in Dubai, Vancouver, and Toronto. She brings forward her expertise in creating strategic visionary insights, along with disruptive and innovative problem-solving solutions for world-class brands across the globe.
Spanning 19 years of advertising experience, Angela's work has helped transform local and global brands like McDonalds, VW, Fallsview Casino, Pacific Blue Cross and many more.
Her work has been recognized in many national and international award shows including Cannes, D&AD, Communication Arts, One Show, London International Awards, Art Directors Club of New York, Marketing Awards, among others.
Rob Sweetman
Founder, Executive Creative Director
One Twenty Three West
Rob Sweetman is Co-Founder and Creative Director at One Twenty Three West.︎ He helped launch the agency in a small garage in East Vancouver to embrace the current realities of the industry.
At launch, the Globe and Mail ran a feature on the agency, and they were asked to speak at the Cannes Festival of Creativity about the agency’s low overhead, high talent business model, and unique approach to advertising and design.
One Twenty Three West now has a senior team in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal with clients all over the world, and in 2020 and 2021, they won Strategy’s Small Agency Of The Year consecutively.
Rob’s work has been honoured at The One Show, Cannes, Clios, D&AD and the Webby Awards. As a result, he’s been ranked the top-awarded Art Director in Canada three times by Strategy Magazine top 10 for Creative Direction. He’s also judged Cannes Festival of Creativity twice, Communication Arts, The New York Festivals, and sits on advisory boards for Capilano University.
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 and RBC Royal Bank, helping Dyversity maintain its position as a leading multicultural agency.
Brynna Aylward
Executive Creative Director
GUT Toronto
Brynna Aylward is an award-winning Executive Creative Director / Creative Lead at GUT Toronto. She previously served as Creative Director in GUT’s Miami office, where she was the creative leader behind some of GUT’s most successful campaigns for multiple global brands, including Popeyes, Bud Light Seltzer and Tim Hortons. Under her leadership as ECD at GUT Toronto she’s helped launch multiple campaigns for Tim Hortons, including a fundraiser for its Camp Day Foundation, as well as its recent collaboration with Justin Bieber.
From her first days in advertising, Brynna knew what she was after—great work that makes a difference in the world. And it’s something she’s tried to achieve through pieces like “Diverse Snowpeople” for Tim Hortons, which highlighted and celebrated how vastly diverse Canada’s population is. Also, at the height of the pandemic in 2020, she spearheaded Headspace’s first-ever campaign to offer the service for free to all 30 million unemployed Americans. Most recently, she worked on “#SaveItSeeIt”, a Michelob Ultra campaign to bring visibility and attention to women’s sports that inspired a $100M commitment to women’s sports from the brand.
Over the course of her career, Brynna has received multiple prestigious accolades, including multiple One Show Pencils and Cannes Lions, as well as being named as one of the One Show and 3% Movement’s Next Creative Leaders in 2019. In 2018, she also was ranked #4 Copywriter by the One Club and #2 Copywriter by the ADC. Prior to GUT, Brynna worked on brands including Ziploc, OFF! Bug Spray, Colgate, Purina, and Allstate at agencies including BBDO and Leo Burnett. When not making ads, Brynna relentlessly pursues the perfect mac and cheese and the ultimate narwhal costume (they’re the unicorns of the sea, you know).
Kevan Kalyan
Creative Director
blackiron agency
Having worked at agencies in Dubai, Halifax, Newfoundland and Labrador, Kevan has recently moved to Ottawa to lead the work as Creative Director at Blackiron.
Prior to his move, he was Creative Group Head at Target and was part of the team that helped the agency win the coveted Strategy Small Agency of the Year 2019.
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.
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...
His parents still aren’t really sure what he does and his 7-year daughter would like his ads to stop ‘interrupting’ her YouTube feed.
Rena Menkes Hula
VP, Group Creative Director
No Fixed Address
For the past 16 years, Rena has been making ads and ad-like-things in NYC, Chicago and Toronto. Thinking creatively has always been a passion for Rena, so applying what comes naturally to her to change how people think about and interact with brands is a dream realized. Pushing creative boundaries to effect change is what drives her everyday.
During her time in the industry she has touched almost everything in the 360 arena; activation to print, TV to social and everything that blurs the lines. She has produced work for brands like Kraft, SC Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Jim Beam, Ford, Unilever, MillerCoors, Pernod Ricard, P&G and Mars and has been recognized by Cannes, Effies, Clios, Shortys and Ex-Awards among others.
Rena (will remind you every day) she is a New York native who holds a BFA in Advertising Design and Copywriting from Syracuse University.
Julie Nikolic
SVP & Director Of Creative
Camp Jefferson
Julie is a Creative Director and the Director of Creative Operations at Camp Jefferson leading the Koodo, Public and CAMH accounts. She has worked as an award-winning and internationally recognized Art Director for over two decades at some of Toronto’s top agencies including BBDO and TAXI, for clients including Starbucks, Frito-Lay, Campbell’s, Canadian Paralympic Committee and Canadian Tire.
She’s passionate about mentoring young creatives, teaching at Miami Ad School and creating work that matters, for brands that matter.
Gail Pak
VP, Creative Director
McCann Worldgroup Canada
Gail has spent 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 Labatt and Mastercard. 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. In just this past year, Gail has helped win a One Show Pencil, win the Kids Help Phone account, and has managed to avoid getting Covid.
Eva Polis
VP, Creative Director
DDB Canada
Eva is the VP/Creative Director at DDB Canada. Creativity has always been her calling card as evidenced in her high school gymnastics floor routine to Devo’s Whip It Good. Even though all she could perform was a summersault she earned 9’s across the board thanks to the creativity of her execution. She knew then and there on that floor mat that you could conquer any challenge with a creative solve. So, you may say that’s where it all started.
Eva started her advertising career as a writer 25 years ago with Palmer Jarvis. And as the agency grew and changed along the way so did her roles. She became ACD, CD and now VP/CD. Being in a small market hasn’t stopped her from having big goals for her and her team. In fact, it’s the challenge of the small market that keeps her fighting the good fight. Together, they always pursue surprising solutions that are bang on strategically. One of the projects she is most proud of is Shadows of the Academy, a board game created to help kids resist the temptation to start smoking by building their self-confidence. This was a game that was incorporated into the Alberta school curriculum.
Her pursuit of fresh ideas has raised the stakes in the market as well. The local competition tries hard and that makes Eva and her team try harder. She loves to win and has hundreds of local market awards along with recognition from The New York Festivals. Luzer’s Archive, Graphis, Communication Arts, Applied Arts, Marketing Awards, ADCC, One Show, Cannes Lions Design (shortlist) and in 2019 Strategy’s Design Agency of the Year (Bronze). The rebrand for Southern Alberta’s Art Gallery (SAAG) Art Frenzy art auction was also featured on the cover of the 2020 Applied Arts Design Annual.
Leia Rogers
Executive Creative Director, National Managing Partner
Rethink
Leia is an ECD and National Managing Partner at Rethink, Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Year 2019, 2020 & 2021 and Cannes Lions’ #3 Global Independent Agency of the Year 2021. Over her 12 years at Rethink, she’s amassed numerous shiny objects from awards shows, but she’s most proud of the long term relationships she’s built with clients like A&W, the YWCA, Shaw, and Science World. Leia is committed to helping build an industry that’s inclusive, equitable and fair, and to creating the kind of space and opportunity for others that she’s been given through her career. When she’s not leading creative at Rethink, she’s a stage-mom to her cat-fluencer named Pickles, and a mom-mom to her human named Gus.
Sann Sava
Chief Creative Officer
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, Adidas, Burger King, Pepsi and L'Oréal.
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 75 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 eleven years at the 48-Hour-Ride, an annual cycling event organized by the Make-A-Wish® Quebec Foundation.
Tyson Kuteyi
Producer, Mixer, Songwriter
Grayson Music Group
Tyson Kuteyi is a quattro-threat Producer, Engineer, Voice Director and Composer at Grayson Music, one of Toronto's leading music and sound studios. Splitting his time between both Nashville and Toronto, Tyson has directed and composed on award-winning projects such as Rowan's Law, CAMH, Ford Canada, DoorDash and more of note.
With the help of his infectious personality, talent and 20+ years experience and expertise under his belt, Tyson has built an impressive body of work with recording artists across Canada and the US and with a multitude of brands.
Since joining Grayson in 2018, his passion for music, creative problem solving and love for people has made Tyson a key addition to Grayson. Tyson continues to push boundaries in music and sound both locally and south of the border.
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, especially when it comes to the craft involved. 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. He finally finished that project 30 years later with 'Songs for a Funeral', a limited edition collaboration in 2018. He's been called a world-class procrastinator, among other things.
In 2008, he represented Canada as 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. And for some unexplained reason, he continues to host the Agency of the Year Awards, most recently in 2021.
Now he lives in the middle of nowhere with an advertising legend and a lifetime of accumulated crap.
Dustin Anstey
Creative Director, Composer
Vapor Music
While breaking his little 11 year-old heart, Dustin Anstey’s first serious girlfriend said “Ugh. You’re a terrible listener.” If she was right, then there’s no logical way to explain his success as a Creative Director and Composer at Vapor Music.
During many years as a Director, and quite a few before that as an Engineer, Dustin has shown his considerable talents in all things audio while partnering with Canada’s top ad agencies and their clients. His work has been recognized at Cannes, and in bedrooms around the world for some specific audio work on a sex lubricant. He’s also flexed his musical skills both as a Composer, and while playing the Bass, Drums, and Guitar around Canada’s Indie Bands and Artists scene.
So, bad listener? Pshaw. Take that, Samantha. Or was it ‘Samara’?
Jacqueline Bellmore
VP, Executive Producer
McCann Worldgroup Canada
Jac is known as an innovative production leader who believes in the power of creative problem solving. She has produced work across all mediums from broadcast, digital, print, radio, experiential and everything in between. Before joining McCann, Jac honed her craft and love of producing at Leo Burnett Toronto. Her clients have included Mastercard, Petro-Canada, Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation, Prostate Cancer Canada, P&G, Wendy’s, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Chevrolet, RBC, Western Canada Lottery Corporation, Royal Canadian Mint and many more. Her love of these brands have picked up awards at Cannes, LIAs, The One Show, D&AD and the Clios. Nowadays, Jac splits her producing time between advertising, her 9-year-old’s homework, TikTok videos and creatively themed birthday parties for her most demanding client.
Luc Du Sault
Partner, VP Creative
lg2
In 2004, my friends and I founded the Quebec City office of lg2. Since then, we've created a fun place to find great ideas. I've led my teams on many projects recognized on the national and international scene like Cannes, D&AD, London Internationals, One Show and Clios. I've also been lucky enough to sit on numerous amazing juries including Cannes, the One Show and the Clios.
I fell in love with advertising at 4 years old, when my dad brought home a storyboard for a TV spot. That passion continued to grow at Cossette where I worked on General Motors, and Mc Donald’s. Now, I'm leading a group of many different talents who are solving all sorts of problems for the Société de l'assurance automobile du Quebec, Farnham Ale & Lager, Krispy Kernels, Lesters food, Bonduelle, the Quebec government and the Quebec dairy board.
Contributing to the success of lg2 has always made me feel proud, and I will continue to create the way I always have - with the heart of a 4-year-old.
John T Evans
Editor
The Editorial Factory
John Evans is the founder and Editor of the Editorial Factory. A curated group of editors dedicated to the art of storytelling.
John is known as a hard-working, creative, & dedicated editor.
Some of John’s clients include Molson's, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Realtor/ca and Rogers, just to mention a few.
John’s experience is vast working as a Senior Editor at Panic & Bob from Jun 2002 to 2016, Toronto and a Senior Editor/Owner at The Editorial Factory from Nov 2016 – Present
Graduated from the Toronto Film School. John has garnered many awards:
AACE Awards Craft Direction Single - "Pep-Talk 1"
ADCC Merrit TV Single - "Comfeze"
CANNES – International Advertising Festival,Short List - Tylenol Back “Bent,” Short List
Outdoor Lions - Scream TV "Sound Canon Project, ”Short List
Promo Lions - Scream TV "Sound Canon Project”
Silver Media Lion - Scream TV "Scream"
Gold Media Lion - Scream TV "Scream"
Clio Awards - IIDAS, Bronze NABS - "Vintage Intern Auction”
Bronze NABS - "Vintage Intern Auction"
THE BESSIES -Canada's Advertising Film Awards
Best of Series Single - Auto CPR “Banana" Craft Award - Auto CPR “Banana" Finalist TV Campaigns - Auto, PR “Banana”, Finalist TV Singles - Auto CPR “Banana”
Finalist TV Singles -Canon Canada " In Search Of Love"
The Marketing Canada Awards, Gold Non-Traditional Advertising Single - "Sound Canon Project"
The One Show - The Premiere International Advertising Award Show
Silver Pencil - "Comfeze"
John is well versed in Avid Media Composer, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, & After FX
Reel/ https://theeditorialfactory.ca
Linkdin: www.linkedin.com/in/ john-evans-74107619
Mark Hajek
Editor
fin pictures
Mark Hajek has been cutting all manner of film and television since graduating from Ryerson in 1988. He began his career at Revolver as the music video editor alongside premiere music video director, Don Allan. At times he was cutting more than 50% of Canadian content for MuchMusic’s airwaves, featuring a veritable who’s who of Canadian music icons.
Hajek has a mountain of awards for his advertising and documentary work. He won a Best Editing Gemini Award for the doc, “Elvis Airborne,” and edited the Juno award-winning concert documentary, "Rush in Rio.” In 2000, he was the editor of the Toyota spot, “Real Dealers Don’t Jump” which won Canada’s first Gold Lion at Cannes in 15 years.
The need to tell stories is what propels Mark to seek out strong narratives. His work in comedy and drama, both long and short form, led to a collaboration with director Richard D’Alessio on “Seven Gates,” and the Gemini winning short, “The Dane.” In 2011, he edited the Gold Clio and Cannes winning “A Personal Apology” for OB Tampons.
Hajek’s work has been integral to numerous projects recognized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, The Juno’s, Yorkton Film And Video Festival, The Bessies, and The New York International Advertising Festival, among others.
Hajek’s still in the mix with his latest cuts for Sonnet Insurance, and is always brewing up something new. Stand by…
Shenny Jaffer
Executive Producer
Smile + Wave
Shenny is a freelance executive producer with extensive experience in production and post production of video content and broadcast. She is a collaborative partner who supports strategic and creative thinking from planning to execution, and across multiple platforms and is someone with a progressive outlook and drive to produce great work. She is a leader and mentor who successfully manages the needs of multiple stakeholders. Shenny is someone who wants to be part of a change and has received multiple awards for unique marketing campaigns.
Andres Kirejew
Head of 2D/Partner
Artjail
Andres Kirejew, is a Toronto based Head of 2D / VFX Supervisor. After graduating from the Sheridan College Media Arts program, Andres started his visual effects career in 1999 with Axyz as one of the world’s youngest Quantel Artists. In 2011, he partnered up with iamstatic (motion artist/directors) to start Township & Co., a multi-disciplinary design, animation, and VFX studio. Andres then joined forces with Alter Ego in 2013 as a VFX supervisor to build their visual effects department. In 2018, he partnered with former Axyz colleagues Steve Mottershead and Gene Dreitser to open the Artjail Toronto office. Artjail specializes in high-end VFX, 3D, Design, Colour Grading, and Finishing. Artjail works on a variety of different projects including advertising, social, film, episodic, art, and music videos. As a Partner and Head of 2D at Artjail, Andres manages the company’s focus in close collaboration with directors and creatives with the goal to help to solve complex creative challenges. Quality over quantity. Culture over corporation.
Christine Leslie
Executive Producer/Director of Licensing
TA2
Christine Leslie is a seasoned Executive Producer and Music Supervisor, specializing in licensing and production for advertising and long form entertainment. With more than 20 years experience in the business, she has worked as Licensing Director and Music Supervisor on countless commercial productions for a wide range of clients. She has also worked on numerous television series, and several acclaimed Canadian films. She is a proud member of the Canadian Guild of Music Supervisor and she currently works at TA2 Sound and Music in Toronto.
Jane Murray
Creative Director & Copywriter
Freelance
Jane Murray has spent over 20 years in the Canadian advertising business as a Creative Director and Copywriter, working on iconic and well-loved campaigns for Reitman’s, Shreddies, Winners, TELUS Mobility, Freedom Mobile, Interac, and many more Canadian and international brands. Her work has been recognized in a multitude of award shows and publications, including Cannes, The Clios, The One Show, The Cassies, D&AD, Applied Arts and Communication Arts. When she’s not making ads, she’s busy selling vintage mid-century modern items in her online shop, Phrantique.
Wade Odlum
Colourist/Partner
Alter Ego
Wade Odlum is a senior colourist and partner at alter ego. At most hours of the day or night you will find him perfecting the looks of national and international commercial and feature projects. Wade has always been passionate about post production and early on he found his niche in colour correction. The balance between art and technicality drew him in and after years spent working in Australia and the UK he found his home in Toronto. He has been fortunate enough to work on everything from cars to beer, burgers to banks, athletes to musicians, tv series to features, with his work being shown around the world.
Kelly Zettel
Creative Director/ Writer
Freelance
Kelly began her career at TAXI as an Art Director. At that time, there were only four people in the creative department and advertising was way more fun than it is now. From there, she moved on to larger agencies including JWT, MacLaren McCann and Leo Burnett.
While at Leo, she decided that being an Art Director involved way too much deck- building and became a Copy Writer. For the past 10 years Kelly has been a Creative Director on many brands including Metrolinx, Canadian Tire, Kraft, Kellogg’s and Ikea.
She has won awards in every major show.
Kelly did all of that while being a mom to her four children. Kelly is pretty sure they don’t really appreciate how much of a pain-in-the-ass it is to make that many lunches before a 9 a.m. meeting.
Michael Dobell
Chief Innovation Officer
Jam3
Michael is the Chief Innovation Officer at Jam3. His focus is on expanding the agency’s digital service offerings and expansion of our Innovation Sprint team who help clients answer their most pressing questions at the speed of digital.
Alongside CEO Mark McQuillan, Michael led Jam3’s successful merger with Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4. Michael sits on the board of the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) and is a former board member at the Advertising and Design Club of Canada (ADCC Awards).
Over the years Michael's teams have won many industry awards and accolades, including over 100 Favorite Website Awards, Lions (the first dating back to 2005), One show awards, D&AD's and a host of others. The work has been widely publicized in Creativity, Applied Arts, Fast Company, Computer Arts, as well as Forester’s who selected Jam3 as a ‘The partner to supercharge your marketing’. When he’s not busy making things happen at Jam3, he’s in search of a great pour-over and a decent wave or two.
Briony Douglas
Photography/Director/Illustrator
Westside Studio
Briony Douglas is a Toronto based Visual Artist, Photographer, Director and Illustrator, catching eyes for the past few years now, she continues to rise on a world spectrum. Her unique style of visual art stands out from the rest of the crowd by blending elements of surrealism and pop culture, while also taking cues from a bygone era.
Represented by Canada’s top production house, Westside Studio, her photography stands out from the crowd, usually telling a story. Her large-scale sculptures, which have been shown across the country, often speak to issues happening in today's society.
She is also a voice in the mental health advocacy community, a Sneaker head and a lover of Fashion.
Briony’s art is meant to strike conversation, push boundaries and reshape the perception of how we view ourselves.
Caroline Friesen
Creative Director
Rethink
Caroline is a Creative Director in Toronto who in her past 7 years of experience has worked at shops such as Camp Jefferson, Cundari, John St., and most recently Rethink. Her work has been nationally and globally recognized by Applied Arts, D&AD, Communication Arts, ADCC, Effies, Cannes Lions, Strategy and the Marketing Awards. Most notably, she’s turned No Frills shoppers into Haulers, made a BP miniature pizza patio set into a viral meme, powered Scotiabank to create positive change in the world of hockey, and once had Jimmy Fallon tell the world that the discount grocery store album of the year sucked.
Anukriti Goswami
Commercial Photographer & Director, Food Drinks & Advertising
Anukriti Creatives Inc.
Anukriti is a Canadian Photographer and Director, specializing in Drinks, Food and Advertising.
She is one of the youngest image-makers in Toronto, her aesthetic sensibility and an undying passion for art has significantly contributed to her growth in a short period of time. She comes from a family of artists, and has grown up working with distinguished photographers and creatives.
It is her bold creative eye and unapologetically unconventional artistic work that has quickly brought her recognition and success as a prominent photographic talent in the industry. Anukriti has had the pleasure of being commissioned for a variety of projects and campaigns with leading advertising agencies, award-winning creative professionals and celebrated brands. She brings a fresh perspective and her own distinctive style to each project.
With an unmistakable visual style and technical expertise, Anukriti is constantly pushing boundaries and creating work that makes waves.
She is also an advisory board member of the Creative Photography Program at Humber College and enjoys mentoring new students and upcoming graduates.
Neal Owusu
Director of Production
Grey
Neal Owusu is the head of production at Grey Toronto, overseeing productions for local Grey clients and international clients under the agency’s borderless initiative.
Neal brings over 15 years of production expertise, working at the city’s most acclaimed agencies on a wide array of productions for clients like Gatorade, Shoppers Drug Mart, Visa, Unilever, and Bell, to name a few.
Neal got his start as a freelance developer and transitioned into working as a digital producer by leveraging his knowledge and background. He then made a shift to broadcast productions because of his love for film and photography, and he eventually rounded out his expertise with other mediums, thanks to his stubborn curiosity.
Neal has produced work that has been awarded at Cannes, the Webbys, ADCCs, One Show, Applied Arts, and Strategy.
Raj Ramnauth
Editor and Partner
Nimiopere
Raj is a creative editor and one of the founders of Nimiopere Film Editorial. He has collaborated on a diverse array of brands ranging from YouTube and McDonald’s to Sick Kids and Louis Vuitton. Raj has also helped create meaningful pieces with world renowned artists and athletes such as Drake, Billie Eilish, Tiger Woods and Naomi Osaka. Raj's commercial advertising work has been recognized at the Marketing Awards, The Cannes Lions Festival, Clios and LIA. Other career highlights include editing an Emmy nominated documentary in 2016, and editing a piece nominated for Video of the Year at the Grammys in 2021. Raj has cut three videos with more than a billion views including the music video for “Life is Good” by Future and Drake, which was Youtube’s most viewed video of 2020, globally.
Eva Van den Bulcke
Vice President, realisation
Septieme (Cossette)
Eva Van den Bulcke is a former partner at Sid Lee. After 15 years of building it to be one of the best creative agencies in the world, she left to go get her hands dirty again in craft. Film, when possible. Branded content, the rest of the week.
Her knowledge of branding, strat, KPIs, target audiences and the art of asking difficult questions makes her a different kind of director. The kind you can actually let go on a shoot without the agency because, well, she is the agency. Plus she has an eye for beauty and the heart to tell moving stories.
She recently joined Septième, Cossette’s in-house production studio, and thinks she finally found the sweet spot between advertising and documentary. She builds teams of different talents, backgrounds and origins, to better show the world from new angles.
Mo Bofill
Partner, Creative Director, Design
One Twenty Three West
Mo is a Partner and Creative Director at 123w – one of Canada’s leading agencies based out of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Born and raised in the Philippines, and growing up in Toronto, she brings a diverse point of view that mixes her passion for design, creativity and business strategy to Canadian design and advertising.
She believes in building brands through a human experience: How we can bring humanity in to how we work together, how we approach work, and how we communicate as brands. How we can design something that has a direct impact on our everyday experience. How we use creativity to not only build business, but to use creativity to appeal to the best in us all.
Outside of driving business growth for her clients, her work has also been awarded and recognized internationally by D&AD, How Design Awards, Cannes Lions, Luerzer’s Archive, Communication Arts, The Advertising Design Club of Canada, Applied Arts, Marketing Magazine, among others.
With over a decade of experience, Mo has helped transform some of Canada’s most iconic brands from the ground up: Bell, President’s Choice, Loblaws, Home Hardware, Winners, Shoppers, and Koodo to name a few. She has also helped transform global brands like KFC, Coca-Cola, Corona, Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi and helped them become relevant brands to Canadians.
A strong believer in mentorship, she mentors at the Miami Ad School Toronto, The Remix Project and theRGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario). Most recently she also joined the Board of Directors of the ADCCs (Advertising & Design Club of Canada).
She is a relentless optimist. She cares deeply about her work and the people she surrounds herself with.
Claire Dawson
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Underline Studio
Claire Dawson is Creative Director and Co-Founder of Underline Studio. Claire’s work has been widely published and honoured with awards from the most distinguished national and international competitions, among them D&AD, the New York Type Directors Club, the One Show, the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, the New York Society of Publication Designers, the National Magazine Awards, Graphis and Communication Arts. She has given numerous lectures on design topics, curated panels for Canada’s largest design conference, Design Thinkers and served as a judge for many North American creative awards competitions. She is currently President of the Board of the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.
Jean-Sébastien Baillat
Creative Director and Founder
Studio Baillat
Jean-Sébastien Baillat has been working in the field of design and digital arts for 17 years. He strives to make design open-ended, colorful, original and striking. Recognized for his work through Baillat Studio, his live video performances, audiovisual projects and installations, his work explores the repetition of forms, flat colors, contrasts, typography, hypnotic and strange narrative constructions.
He has won more than 200 national and international design awards including a Lion at Cannes, a cube at the ADCC as well as the 2011, 2012 and 2017 Grafika contest annual grand prizes.
Ryan Crouchman
Partner, VP, Executive Creative Director, Design
LG2 Toronto
Over the past twenty years, Ryan has created compelling work for clients across every major sector. His strategic mindset and attention to detail have resulted in consistent recognition on both a national and international level. Throughout his career, Ryan has held design and leadership positions at some of the country’s most-awarded studios and agencies, and in 2018 he co-founded lg2 Toronto’s Design & Branding department, helping grow Canada’s largest independent creative agency.
Nathalie Cusson
Creative Director, 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 has worked on many iconic Canadian brands, including; LCBO, Rethink Breast Cancer, Air Canada’s enRoute, Fairmont Hotel & Resorts, CIBC and Telus.
More recently, Nathalie lead the design team of Le Parc to do a complete brand architecture and rebrand of Groupe Média TFO.
Her work has been recognized through many award shows, from organizations like NOWNESS, Applied Arts, Communication Arts, the National Magazine Awards (14 prizes), Magnum Opus Award, Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards, the AIGA, the Effie Awards and the ADCC.
Whitney Geller
Partner
Whitman Emorson
Whitney Geller is a co-founder of strategic design studio Whitman Emorson and condom brand Jems. Whitman Emorson was founded by Whitney and Yasemin Emory – long time friends and creative collaborators – in New York in 2011. As entrepreneurial self-starters, they’re driven by the idea that design should support a multiplicity of voices and set out to create a studio to pursue projects of value. Their desire to produce good work and create meaning in the world underpins the studio’s approach and collaborative culture. The studio has helped launch many successful startups and this is what gave Whitney and Yasemin the audacity to launch Jems. Jems are condoms that focus on clarity and simplicity, using only what’s essential—Natural latex, 100% silicone lube. Nothing more. Jems is also a platform for sex ed created for an evolving multiplicity of sex and gender expressions.
Theo Gibson
Group Creative Director, Head of Content
Cossette
Theo is an award-winning creative, brand strategist and content specialist with over fourteen years of experience in the marketing industry. His never-ending mission to see the beauty and obscurities in life and challenge conventional thinking has led him to work with large global brands, launch effective campaigns and create award-winning films.
Theo is a graduate of Humber College’s Advertising and Graphic Design program and an advisor at HXOUSE, where he mentors and runs lectures and workshops for young creatives. He also teaches at George Brown School of Design and sits on the program's advisory committee.
With a focus on creative and brand strategy, Theo continuously establishes himself and his partners as progressive creatives and marketers.
“Don’t flee from yourself. If you have a quality be proud of it, let it design you whatever it is.”
Phoebe Glasfurd
Creative Director/Owner
Glasfurd & Walker
Jacqueline Lane
Executive Creative Director
Public Address Studio
Jacqueline Lane is the Executive Creative Director at Public Address Studio and Design Educator at Miami Ad School, where she shares her passion of Typography to the next generation of creative minds.
While working on projects for large global brands and small businesses alike, she is dedicated to creating meaningful concepts, strategic narratives and crafted executions. With over 15 years in the industry, her thoughtful approach is informed by her background as an award-winning designer (D&AD, Communication Arts, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Applied Arts, etc.) as well as by her diverse experiences working with global brands (Netflix, Oprah Winfrey Network, GE, Gillette, MGM Studios) at some of Canada’s top agencies (Bruce Mau, John St., Jackman Reinvents, Loblaw Digital).
Jacqueline is colour obsessed and is always looking for ways to inject play into her work and fun into the process. When not in design mode, you’ll find her surfing and hiking with her husband, son and dog, Pumpkin Pie. Jacqueline lives and works in Toronto.
Jake Lim
Creative Director
Rethink
Jake is a Toronto-based creative director/designer with Rethink. After graduating from YSDN, he split out west to work in design studios, then experimenting in startups and media arts. Jake is now in the world of advertising and designing for clients like IKEA, TAZO, WestJet, Truss, Molson, Kraft, Philly, Freedom.
@jakemakes
Kim Norwich
Creative Director
Jacknife
Kim is a gifted, hands-on creative director and sees developing trusting, hard-working client relationships as possibly her greatest strength. Guiding clients and her team to surface the creative vision, while managing the process from brief to rollout. The many world-class brands she’s shaped include Red Bull, Fabletics, Saputo, Mars Wrigley, Arterra Wines Canada, Nike and Molson Coors. Fun fact: Kim’s also an action sports design pioneer, with stacks of skate and snowboard designs to her name.
Mike Nugent
Design Director
BBDO Canada
Mike has been deeply rooted at BBDO for 15 years. His growth to Design Director is a measure of his dedication to craft, his commitment to culture and his ping pong skills. Mike thinks good design is a successful delivery of intention. For any medium and purpose. He’s honored to have contributed to the meaningful intentions of brands that have funded local communities, educated on the environment and empowered youth around the world. These are also the campaigns that received the most recognition globally ranking Mike the top designer in Canada for the last 2 years on Strategy’s Creative Report Card.
Design is more than a job to Mike. It is a lifestyle. A way of thinking. It is the reason why Mike wears the same thing every day and can’t go into someone’s house without straightening their picture frames.
Howard Poon
VP Design
DDB Canada
Howard has a reputation for frank feedback and has a low tolerance for complexity. He stays curious with a subscription to the Sunday New York Times and became addicted to espresso during the pandemic. As VP Design for DDB Canada (Edmonton), Howard collaborates with a cross-disciplinary agency team of strategists, creatives and designers to use insight-driven design to build exceptional brands. Over the years, his team’s work has appeared in Communication Arts, Applied Arts and has been recognized with international, national and regional awards. In 2019, DDB was recognized by Strategy Magazine as Bronze Design Agency of the Year. Howard is passionate about nurturing young talent.
Julie Vander Herberg
Creative Director
Vanderbrand
Julie Vander Herberg is a Toronto-based Creative Director and Founder of Vanderbrand, a creative agency with a focus on design, brand identity, and art direction.
Under her leadership, Vanderbrand has received numerous awards, most notably from the Advertising and Design Club of Canada, Communication Arts, Pentawards,
and Applied Arts. Vanderbrand's work has been featured by international publications including Creative Boom, The Dieline, Brand New, The Brand Identity, Communication Arts Exhibit, and AIGA Eye on Design.
Jan Avendano
Design Director
Art & Mechanical
Jan is a multi-disciplinary creative who has collaborated with a diverse range of clients to provide meaningful and considered design solutions. She is the Design Director at Art & Mechanical.
Dejan Djuric
Design Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Dejan is the Design Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo. His work has been published and honoured with awards in D&AD, the New York Type Directors Club, the One Show, the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, London International Awards, Cannes Lions. He was ranked Strategy’s #1 Art Director in their 2017 Creative Report Card
Dejan loves brands that don’t just aim to understand their audience, but actively strive to make them feel something meaningful. He believes that the idea is king, and that all great ideas are rooted in a human truth.
“I think that the best insights happen when we’re smiling.”
Franzi Erlebach
Design Director
A multidisciplinary designer and educator from Germany living in Toronto, Franzi has 10+ years of experience in the design industry, specialized in branding, and a love for experimental typography. She helps small- and large-scale brands express their true selves to create deeper connections with their audiences. With an aptitude for both strategic and creative thinking, Franzi has pushed the boundaries of visual identities crossing the digital, print and spatial realms. Her clients included Audi, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Canada Basketball, HWKN Architecture and Cheekbone Beauty to only name a few.
Currently a Design Director at Sid Lee Toronto, Franzi previously worked at Bruce Mau Design, as well as at firms in Switzerland and Germany. Besides her professional design practice, she has been instructing for 7 years at OCAD University, focusing on typography, and she currently teaches Information Design at York University. She also mentors young creatives to help them navigate the industry, find their calling and career path.
Marcelo Hong
Design Director
Leo Burnett Company Ltd
With over twelve years of experience, Marcelo is a designer specialized in brand identities, editorial, packaging, and environmental design. His work combines innovative ideas with meticulous craft across a wide range of clients within the corporate, cultural, and non-profit sectors.
Marcelo’s body of work has been recognized and awarded both nationally and internationally by the Type Directors Club of New York (TDC/NY), the One Show, Communication Arts, the Advertising and Design Club of Canada (ADCC), Applied Arts, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), and Marketing Awards, among others.
Ugo Lachapelle
President & Creative Director
Caserne
A child of Montreal suburbia of the late ‘80s, Ugo was an avid skateboarder, who was fascinated by branded images from a young age. His ambitions were to be his own boss and work with his friends. So he did just that. Directly after graduating from UQAM in graphic design, with no experience, he co-founded Caserne, a design-centric studio with wide-scope capabilities, including branding, packaging, editorial, digital, and even fabric design. Needless to say, in under a decade, his work has been honoured and published internationally. Ugo’s design aesthetic is influenced by both European and North American design, and is deeply rooted in the belief that the message must be clear.
Jordan Poirier
Managing Director
Concrete
As Managing Director at Concrete, Jordan directs all aspects of the branding process, from strategy through to creative execution. In his over 15 years at Concrete he has led branding and design projects for clients from a wide range of sectors such as Apple, Lululemon, Joe Fresh, About-face, Canada Goose and Norco.
Daniel Robitaille
Creative Director
Paprika
After graduating from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Daniel Robitaille was quickly recruited by Sidlee, where he had the opportunity to work on several large-scale projects. In 2010, he joined Paprika as art director, before becoming creative director in 2019. His creative director role has led him to reconcile various visual identity projects with communications and space design. Throughout his career, Daniel has won over 300 national and international awards and prestigious contests, notably the One Show, Communication Arts, Dieline, Pentawards, Grafika, IDEA, Applied Arts, AIGA, Graphis, Type Directors Club, and Art Directors Club. He was named to the Young Guns 2012 class by the Art Directors Club and a 2018 Ascenders by the Type Directors Club. Daniel was also invited to sit on the jury for the Art Directors Club Young Guns, and for other contests such as Applied Arts, Lotus Awards, and Grafika. Since 2020, Daniel has been teaching at his alma mater’s design school.
Charlene Sepentzis
Creative Director
TUX
Charlene has 10 years of experience in art direction and graphic design. During her career, she honed her talent with the best in the industry: at Design Army, LG2 and GrandArmy, among others, in Washington D.C., Montreal and New York. An innovative eye and impeccable attention to detail characterize her approach, which she applies with great rigour, in all her projects: creation of visual identities, prints, editorials, digital and photographic artistic direction. With TUX Creative Co. for the past 4 years, she leads the ten artisans who make up the agency’s design team. Combining a perfect blend of listening and perfectionism, she knows like no other how to stimulate her team to push the boundaries of visual creation. Charlene is passionate about the beautiful, the relevant and the thoughtful.
Gavin Barrett
Founding Partner & Chief Creative Officer
Barrett and Welsh
Co-founder of People of Colour in Advertising and Marketing (POCAM) and the Multicultural Marketing Alliance of Canada.
His first jobs: door-to-door market researcher, poet, pharmaceutical sales manager (not a euphemism) and musical production manager. None of them paid well so he went on to a career as an entrepreneur, writer, designer, art director and creative director.
In pursuit of big ideas he has: nibbled on pigs' ears (not on a live pig at the time); gone elephant-back in the Thai jungle (no elephants were hurt); gambled in a Macau casino (was utterly destroyed).
He has created advertising for: mums, businesswomen, unclejis and auntyjis, male tailors of the Muslim faith, tea drinkers, Scotch drinkers, men who smoke Virginia Slims, people trapped in planes, commuters, voters-on-fences, car mechanics and wedding planners.
His work has been brought to life on screen and page by Deepa Mehta, David Carson, Bruno Barbey and Louis Ng.
His ads: have run in 35 countries, helped elect prime ministers, attracted the ire of the lawyers for Dolly the cloned sheep, drawn an angry crowd in Lagos, are studied in business texts in Canada and India and were criticized by a fictional character in a John Irving novel.
His poems: can be found in Understan (Mawenzi House 2020), his new book, in Penguin’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging and many other fine literary journals.
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.
Loretta is a frequent speaker and article contributor on 360 multicultural marketing, brand communications, and diversity and inclusion strategies. With over two decades of professional experience in marketing communications, she has formerly held management and consultant positions at leading multinational firms Hill & Knowlton Canada and Ogilvy Asia.
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.
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 Governor of York University; Diversity & Inclusion Advisor for the International Association of Business Communicators and Canadian Marketing Association; Advisor, TRIEC Professional Immigrant Networks; Senior Advisor, North American Association of Asian Professionals; Founding Director and Past President of Multicultural Marketing Alliance of Canada.
Loretta has been invited to numerous industry awards judge panels, including the Blue Ribbon Judge Panel of the IABC global Gold Quill Communications Awards, and speaking at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, CIBC World Markets’ Conference on Retail Marketing, and Marketing Magazine’s Multicultural Conference.
Alisa Choi Darcy
Co-Founder
Mimos Coliving
Passionate about celebrating diversity and valuing inclusive, safe spaces, Alisa Choi Darcy enjoys creating inclusive communities in both her professional and personal life.
An entrepreneur with a social conscience, Alisa founded Quote EndQuote Cross-CulturalStrategy in 2007 to help westcoast organizations understand and tap into the purchasing power of Canada’s culturally-diverse markets. She was regularly called on by media, such as Global Television, CBC, OMNI Television, and guest lectured on the topic of multicultural marketing strategies at post-secondary institutions, such as Langara, University of the Fraser Valley, and British Columbia Institute of Technology. As well as being a board member of AMSSA, she has facilitated workshops and spoke on multicultural marketing at conferences across Canada.
A first generation Hong Kong-born Chinese, Alisa has intimate knowledge of the culture shock and difficulty in settlement and integration that is experienced by new immigrant consumers. She witnessed her family’s struggles of trying to assimilate in the monocultural communities of Penticton and Coquitlam, in British Columbia, experiencing racism, discrimination, as well as language and cultural barriers.
Since moving to Toronto, Alisa created strategic campaigns targeted at newcomers andunderserved consumer markets for brands such as Scotiabank, BMO, Western Union, Walmart, 3M and Kruger. A nominee herself, Alisa volunteered with YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Toronto, recorded podcasts with TRIEC, and hosted Meetup events for NGO I TALK TO STRANGERS.
In her spare time, Alisa can be found feeding her addiction to TikTok and growing Mimos Coliving, a startup that she co-founded during the pandemic that creates community-focused multicultural, multigenerational housing.
Donovan D'Souza
Associate Creative Director
Balmoral Multicultural Marketing
New to multicultural. Not new to advertising.
Donovan has spent over twelve years at FCB India, crafting original and effective campaigns across traditional and new media.
Problem solver at mind. Storyteller at heart. He’s won numerous national and international accolades for his work. A Gold at Cannes, Clio, LIA and a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia being the most recent. His experience spans across sectors like automobiles, media, FMCG, retail, and finance.
Today, he finds himself at Balmoral leading the creative team. And he looks forward to not just being part of the Balmoral success story. But writing a chapter of his own.
Milestones behind. Miles ahead.
Amira Hassan
Founder, Creative Director
y (design house)
A designer at heart.
Amira comes with 15+ years of experience working in various sectors across Canada and the global region. A Canadian-Palestinian born and raised in Dubai, she has established her career in Dubai working with agencies such as Wunderman, FCB, M&C Saatchi World Services, Ogilvy and more. She worked with clients across a vast and diverse region covering the Levant, GCC and North Africa.
Upon her arrival to Canada, she has decided to follow her humble dream and set up on her own, working her way one step at a time, not subsided by a challenging new market and successfully delivering projects for companies and nonprofits during the global pandemic. She named her venture, y, in honor and memory of her beloved mother, Yoland, specializing in branding and editorial.
Since the incorporation of her business, Amira has cultivated and secured clients across Toronto, London (UK), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Milan, and Tripoli (Lebanon) that focus on luxury, innovation and culture. She has recently signed Schwarzkopf as one of her biggest clients and is excited to grow even more!
George Kan
President
Captus Advertising
George has more than 30 years of advertising and marketing experience under his belt.
Studied Graphic Design at London's Central St. Martins of Art and Design, George started his advertising career in Hong Kong, where he held several senior creative positions at J. Walter Thompson (JWT). His impressive track record and experiences gained from working with some of the biggest local and international brands such as Nike, Shell Oil, Nestle, Citibank, Ford Motors, and Rolex.
In 2009, George co-founded Captus Advertising. Within a few short years, the agency has become one of the most awarded creative multicultural advertising agencies in Canada. Today, his work spans consumer goods, including crown corporations, government, finance, politics, retail, and real estate.
Chinmay Nagarkar
Associate Art Director
Maple Diversity Communications
Chinmay has over 10 years of multimedia design experience, in agencies in India and Canada. He has worked on global and local brands including J&J, Porsche, Royale, HSBC, Edward Jones, Bell, and LoyaltyOne where he has successfully used his award-winning conceptualization and design skills.
Chinmay graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Applied Arts and Graphic Design. He is passionate about experimenting and creating beautiful animation, motion graphics and transitional effects on his digital work.
He loves long drives.
Shreya Parashar
Founder & Content Architect
Culture Opus
With her rich experience in media, entertainment and CPG, Shreya has been at the epicenter of the content business for over 13 years. After managing fiction and non-fiction shows with leading media brand ‘Star,’ she worked with Unilever for the cosmetics giant, Lakmé, beautifying the world around her. In 2015, she co-founded Culture Opus, a content boutique where “story-telling” is the blood and brains behind every brand campaign, strategy and outcome. As the content architect of Culture Opus, she has built the castle of stories from Mumbai, Liverpool to Toronto, brick by brick. Shreya also volunteers as content director with the American Marketing Association (AMA), Toronto, shaping up content strategies and campaigns.
With her prolific background in media and communication, Shreya feels that it’s about time that brands take a back seat and listen to their consumers, align their brand offerings and communicate in accordance with the experiences that their consumers share. Currently, she lives her dream of creating brand stories by the day, doing improv by the evening, reading books by the night and participating 24/7 in the causes she deeply loves and cares for.
Justin Poy
President & Owner
The Justin Poy Agency
Justin Poy is an award-winning Canadian advertising executive that has built his career in the context of Canada’s diversity and inclusion. As a 30-year veteran of the industry, he is considered one of the early founders of what was then known as “ethnic advertising”. The Justin Poy Agency (JPA), established by Justin in 1993 and where he currently serves as President and Creative Director, has created some of the country’s most iconic ad campaigns such as “Everyone Loves Marineland”, and has served some of the biggest brands in Canada including The Canadian International AutoShow and The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). From strategic planning and creative, to production and media buying, the Agency has gone on to win a multitude of international and domestic creative awards, including recognition at Cannes Lions1, for special effects created for the launch of SCREAM TV. He is also the Founder of NEIL (Natural Enhanced Integrated Language) an AI platform that assists automotive dealerships in capturing data and streamlining the digital sales process. NEIL has now been integrated with TEMI autonomous robots in Canada. Justin believes that AI will play a much greater role in marketing in the future and has become a prolific spokesperson for AI, having moderated many conferences including PEO (Professional Engineers of Ontario) and as a contributor to the white paper published by Cambridge University, Jesus College entitled, “Multilateral Solutions for Global Governance of the Information and Communications Technology Industry”
Justin is frequently quoted in trade media, especially pertaining to automotive marketing from a multicultural perspective in publications such as Canadian Auto Dealer Magazine, AutoSphere Magazine3 the Trillium Automobile Association (TADA) and as a keynote speaker at American digital and social media conferences such as Digital Dealer (Atlantic City and Las Vegas).
In addition to sitting on many charitable/government boards such as the SickKids Foundation (recently completed a 9-year term), Trillium Gift of Life (TGLN) (past), Walrus Magazine (past) and the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) (past), and corporate public boards such as Blockchain Venture Capital (current), Justin is the recipient of the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and the Chinese Canadian Legend Award13. He currently sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board for York University’s Faculty of Science4, being the only member from the marketing industry on the board, to assist in ensuring that York University’s significant accomplishments receive the widespread recognition they deserve. Justin chaired the Dr. Norman Bethune Gala for the U of T School of Medicine and co-founded the Lunar Gala, the annual fundraiser for Mackenzie Health Vaughan Hospital. He is the Honorary Patron of Asian Heritage Month (CFACI) and has been recognized as Alumni of Distinction at both Ryerson University and The Toronto French School (TFS).
Justin supports education and healthcare through scholarships, such as “The Justin Poy Media Award” at Ryerson University’s, RTA School of Media7, established in 1996, and the “Justin Poy Endowment Fund” at the Kidney Foundation of Canada and is the co-founder of the “Glitter Gala”14 one of SickKids Foundation’s signature fundraising events each year.
He continues to promote the value of multicultural advertising and marketing across Canada by delivering plenary speeches to industries such as the charitable sector which faces tremendous competition to raise funds and must dig deeper into the population with the right messaging and tools. He recently spoke for APRA Canada8 and was the Chair of the Chinese Conference Series for AFP Canada9. Justin was a significant voice during the rise of “#StopAsianHate” during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and spoke often in venues such as Ryerson University’s Speaker Series #StopAsianHate10, “Straight Talk” on iHEART Radio11 and produced the “ImaginAsian Broadcast”12, a series for the Canadian Foundation of Asia Culture’s Virtual Museum.
Jatinder Rai
President
Response Advertising
Jatinder started Response Advertising in 1999 and has since been at the forefront of multicultural marketing and communications for both national and local brands across Canada. With over 20 years of experience, Jatinder’s focused on serving Canada’s increasingly multicultural landscape, primarily for the Chinese, Filipino and South Asian markets, has allowed him to carve a leadership place in the industry. He has found creative success in creating effective multicultural advertising campaigns that are strong in identifying niche market needs and as well culturally insightful. Today, Response Advertising continues to chart new territory through thought leadership and innovation in strategy, creative and media for the immigrant Canadians . Jatinder is active in his community and has served on numerous boards such as British Columbia Pavilion Corporation (PAVCO), TELUS Community Board (Vancouver),BC Cancer Foundations, former Chair of Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), Vancouver Board of Trade, Granville Island Trust (Federal) and Open Learning Agency.
Waseem Shaikh
Creative Director
Ethnicity Matters
Waseem Shaikh is a writer, filmmaker and award-winning creative director at Ethnicity Matters. With over a decade's experience in multicultural marketing, Waseem has helped deliver some of the biggest brands in the world to diasporic audiences across Canada– including Coca-Cola, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Rogers, and RBC, amongst others.
Whitney Zhan
Co-Founder
digitallab.uwex.co
Whitney is a true example of cultural diversity, not because of her biological background, but because of her education and career history. She has been applying her mathematics and economics knowledge creatively to marketing and communications for many top names in different industries and countries for more than 25 years.
After completing the chemotherapy and radiation therapy in 2015, Whitney founded her own business (https://digitallab.uwex.co/) in Toronto with the expertise and resources she accumulated from working for Gallup, Hakuhodo, and Blue Focus. Since then, Whitney and her team have been helping Canadian businesses of different sizes, from small local businesses to Fortune Global 500, successfully connect to Chinese communities in Canada and around the world with their unique targeting technologies and creative tools.
Above that, Whitney is also actively involved in bridging the culture gap between Chinese and other ethnic communities. While introducing the Canadian cultures and other cultures on popular Chinese social media, she gives lectures of Chinese cultures to her clients and helps them build up better relationships with the community.
Whitney is also active in giving back to society. She is the founding member of IWB Immigrant Women in Business, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping immigrant women in business to succeed. She has been promoting the Give and Gain Challenge program for IWB to the Chinese living in Canada. Every year, she and her husband join the fundraising for organizations like Canadian Cancer Society, RBC Run for the Kids, North York General Hospital Foundation.
Doris Chan
Associate Creative Director
Dyversity Communications
Arrived in Canada from Hong Kong many years ago, bringing her passion for creativity and all things beautiful. Studied advertising art direction at OCAD, honing in on her natural artistic skills and ideas-driven design.
Now, with over 15 years of experience in the advertising industry, mainly in multicultural, she continues to enjoy the diverse and ever-evolving nature of this colourful, yet challenging journey.
She has been pivotal in helping Dyversity grow its multicultural portfolio as a leading creative on clients such as Bell, Responsible Gambling Council, RBC and more whilst picking up many multicultural awards along the way.
Even when she is not working, she is drawing and finding creative inspiration from nature and travelling. Virtual travel and art exhibitions will have to suffice until we can resume flying safely again.
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.
For partnership inquiries, please contact Neil Ewen at newen@brunico.com.