Marketing Awards ★ Judges ★

Luc Du Sault
Partner, VP, ECD
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.

Jenny Smith
President & ECD
Ray

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, D&AD, and LIA. She lives in St. John’s with her husband, two teens, and Nacho, the cat.

Joseph Bonnici
Chief Creative Officer
Tadiem

Joseph Bonnici is the Chief Creative Officer and one of the owners of TADIEM - a collective of 4 innovative agencies including Bensimon Byrne, Narrative, OneMethod and Folk. Under his creative leadership, the agencies have won over 40 One Show Pencils, Cannes Lions, Clios and D&AD pencils. The agencies have been a top 15 independent at the Cannes Lions, AdAge’s International Small Agency of the Year, and Strategy Magazine’s PR Agency of the year.

He is passionate about creating purposeful work. He founded the groundbreaking #smashstigma campaign for Casey House, which has become the world’s leading voice in eradicating HIV stigma. He joined the board of the hospital in 2018 and continues to volunteer his time to the cause.

Pete Breton
Executive Creative Director
Friday

Pete started his career in Account Management working across categories on blue chip clients. Having helped develop successful strategic campaigns as a suit, Pete took everything he learned and moved into the Creative department.

In his role as both a Creative and Executive Creative Director his integrated and innovative work has been awarded both nationally and internationally; including Gold Lions from Cannes, The One Show, Clios, CA, D&AD and Media Innovation Awards.

Jean-Charles Bullot
ACD
INNOCEAN Canada

JC began as an art director in Marseille (France) in 1989. Then he moved back to Martinique and created his little agency. Soon he moved to RSCG (now Havas) and then Publicis to work on accounts like Yoplait, Audi, Air France.

He began his career as a copywriter when he came to work in Montreal in 2002. His agencies were Y&R, Lg2 Montreal, Cossette, DraftFCB and also Sid Lee, bleublancrouge, Ogilvy as a freelancer.

With a solid experience in the Quebec market, JC is now an associate creative director/ copywriter for Kia at Innocean.

Bryan Collins
Founder, Creative Director
123w

Julie Desrochers
Creative Director
Sid Lee

Creative Director Julie Desrochers has over 20 years of experience in advertising. Since joining Sid Lee 11 years ago, she’s championed purpose-driven and innovative campaigns that have been ingrained into Québec’s pop culture. Her work has received national and international accolades from the IDÉA Awards, The Marketing Awards, ADCC, LIA and The One Show.

She chaired the IDÉA Awards in 2021 and now has the privilege of sitting on the Marketing Awards main jury for the second time. This year also marks her first international judging experience on the ADC’s 102nd Annual Awards Craft jury.

To her peers, Julie is recognized as an enthusiastic and forward-thinking leader. She never misses a chance to share her passion for great work with her teammates, peers, and clients alike.

Deyra Jaye Fontaine
Inclusive Marketing Strategist
Export Development Canada

Deyra Jaye Fontaine (she/her) is an inclusive marketing strategist who helps organizations and individuals use authentic brand values to amplify underrepresented voices and close the gap in serving marginalized communities. She has spent more than a decade taking marketing and communications projects from idea to implementation and uses a multidisciplinary approach when integrating DEI principles and practices into campaigns and content.

Deyra Jaye is a talented connector of the creative and technical, leveraging her training in agile methodology, digital marketing, social media strategy, organizational development and DEI to bring unique insights and experience to every project.

Heather Hnatiuk
Senior Creative Director

With over 20 years of experience at agencies in Vancouver, Madrid and Toronto, Heather has earned a reputation for her writing and storytelling instincts. At Rethink, Sra.Rushmore, Ogilvy, Taxi, Grip, Cossette and others, she helped to grow brands like Dove, KFC, RBC and McDonald’s with her unique voice. Her work has been recognized by the Marketing Awards, LIA, Obies, Cannes and One Show. She was also a teacher at Miami Ad School, Madrid where she enjoyed mentoring young creatives from all over the world. Heather is currently a freelance Creative Director and Writer.

Peter Ignazi
CCO
Diamond

Peter is one of the most successful creative directors in Canada. Under his leadership, Cossette was named Canadian "Agency of the Year" by Strategy Magazine in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He brought the same honour to BBDO in 2011. In both cases, firsts for the agencies. For 2019 and 2020 he was the number one creative director in Canada on the Strategy Magazine Creative Report Card.

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Peter has a B.Sc. in Chemistry from McMaster University as well as an MBA from McGill University. After failed attempts at being a research chemist and an account executive, Peter finally found that he could somehow earn a living as a copywriter. He has been gainfully employed as a copywriter and Creative Director in Toronto and New York for such agencies as TAXI, McCann, and Downtown Partners DDB.

In 2022, Peter brought his skills to Diamond when he became their first Chief Creative Officer. He oversees the creative in areas from brand to influencer to experiential and beyond on accounts such as TD Bank, Tim Hortons, Accor and Pizza Hut.

Active in the industry and his community, Peter has been on the Strategic Committee of the Canadian Marketing Association as well as on the board of Heritage Toronto.

Krystle Mullin
Executive Creative Director
Edelman

Krystle Mullin is an Executive Creative Director at Edelman heading up the global HP and lululemon accounts. She’s been recognized on Ad Week’s Creative 100 list and was named one of Canada’s Top Ten Creative Directors in 2019. She spent 3 years in Los Angeles at RPA where she was a VP Creative Director on the Cedars-Sinai, La-Z-Boy, Southwest Airlines, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Equality California and Amazon Prime Video accounts. Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios and D&AD, among others.

Helen Pak
SVP Creative, Marketing, Design & Content
The Walt Disney Company

Helen’s 25 year+ career has included roles at Saatchi, Ogilvy, JWT, Taxi, Strawberryfrog in Amsterdam, with leadership positions including CEO/Chief Creative Officer at Havas and President/Chief Creative Officer at Grey Canada. She took a hiatus from the agency world and worked as a Global Creative Strategist at Facebook/Instagram before returning to the ad world.

Her work has been recognized by major shows globally with longer format content featured in notable film festivals. A recurring juror, Helen has been on juries including Cannes Lions Branded Entertainment, Cannes Film, One Show, Clios Jury Chair for Innovation/Integrated, D&AD, ADC, LIAs, NY Festivals, CA, Effies, Dubai Lynx, ADCC, Strategy Awards, Atomic, Marketing Awards, CMA and AdStars in Asia. She has also been recognized on Adweek’s Creative 100’s & Top Global Leaders in Advertising’ and on Creative Pool’s top 100 influencers for two consecutive years in a row.

At Disney, Helen leads the award winning in-house creative agency, Yellow Shoes with teams located in California and Florida. The multi-disciplinary 300+ team creates integrated marketing campaigns, synergy activations, partnerships and promotions, as well as short and long form programming content on Disney+ for Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. The team also works in close collaboration with Lucas, Marvel, Pixar, Disney studios, corporate brands and additional partners across the company.

Prior to her career in advertising, Helen was a Governor General award-winning Architect and graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto.

Leia Rogers
Executive Creative Director
Rethink

Leia is an ECD and Partner at Rethink – Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Year for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, Cannes Lions’ #1 Creative Strategy Agency of The Year and #3 Global Independent Agency of the Year 2022, and Campaign’s Global Independent Agency of the Year 2022. Her work has been awarded by Cannes, One Show, Communication Arts, Marketing, and many others. Leia is committed to her work with not-for-profits supporting women and to helping build an industry that’s diverse, inclusive, equitable and fair.

Roehl Sanchez
EVP, CCO, Partner
BIMM

Roehl’s belief in great design, the power of data and "work that works" has led to countless award-winning campaigns and programs for some of Canada’s biggest brands such as Leon’s, Audi, Shoppers Drugmart, Loblaws, Bell, Coca-Cola, Shaw, Telus and Cogeco. He personally lead the launch of Shoppers Drugmart’s Optimum program, Murale, VIB as well as the PC Plus program from Loblaws.

Roehl’s work has garnered awards both nationally and internationally. From CMA awards, PROMO!, ADCCs, Atomic Awards, Shopper Innovation and Applied Arts to DMA ECHOs, One Show, Webby, Epica, Effies and Cannes Lions. Together with his team, he has led his agency to Silver Digital Agency of the Year in 2018.

Michael Aronson
ECD
Dentsu Creative

Distinctive. Disruptive. Persuasive. As Executive Creative Director at Dentsu Creative, Michael collaborates with brands to increase their cultural importance within our communities and resonance with consumers. With over 20 years of advertising experience, Michael has led creative work for Dyslexia Canada, Yakult, L’Oreal, Manulife, Hitachi, Coca-Cola, Ubisoft, Rogers, Air Canada, Subway, and Dare to name a few.

Most recently worked on creating Dentsu’s 2023 Global DEI Report, and was named member of the Industry Advisory Board of the Academy for Games and Media at the Breda University of Applied Science in The Netherlands.

Brynna Aylward
Executive Creative Director
GUT

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).

Linda Carte
Creative Director
FUSE Create

Linda is Creative Director at Fuse Create in Toronto. An Art Director by trade, her passion for design, typography and concept brings a powerful trifecta to clients business. She has led brands including VISA, Frito-Lay, Starbucks, Canadian Paralympics, IKEA, Mercedes-Benz and Kia. Her work has been honoured by D&AD, Cannes, The One Show, Communication Arts and of course the Clios.

Linda enjoys sharing her passion for the business. She has taught at Miami Ad School, is currently on the faculty of Centennial College and has been a visiting instructor at Ontario College of Art and Design where she was also a graduate. When she’s not helping clients grow their business, you will find her second-guessing Waze and regretting it.

Noella Choi
ACD
FCB

Art Director, Photographer, Musician, hot chocolate lover. Noella is a strong believer that beautiful design must work hand in hand with user experience — that one cannot be sacrificed for the other. Always on the lookout for new trends and tech, she has built her career around crafting meaningful consumer connections and digital experiences through the creative use of data and emerging technologies.

She has won numerous for clients such as Volkswagen, Kraft, and notably the ‘me too.’ Act Too campaign—for which she received AToMic Gold in Best Digital Engagement, Bronze Clio in Digital/Mobile, and Silver Lion in Creative Data.

Rica Eckersley
Executive Creative Director
DDB

Rica’s passions include reading, comedy, and working the room after 2 drinks. Unsurprisingly, this led her to a career in advertising.

Rica has spent 20 years helping brands find their voice and shaping their narratives. Her keen sense of insight and love of storytelling have helped her create memorable campaigns for everything from packaged goods to big box retail to luxury cars.

Her work has been recognized by Cannes, the One Show, Communication Arts, and more.

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

Dave Federico
Creative / Art Director

Over the last 20 plus years, Dave has either been an art director, a designer, a some-times copywriter, or a creative director. Often a few of those at once. Through his career he’s touched some of the world’s biggest brands with some of the country's most creative agencies. As a CCO he played a role in building business, agencies, and teams. And now, as a freelance operator, he goes where he is wanted and needed to do what needs to be done. Kind of like the Batman, but during the daytime. And no bio is complete without the part that states his work has been recognized by the most highly regarded advertising award shows on Earth. True story.

Roni Gellert
Creative Director
Anomaly

Roni is an award-winning creative with over a decade of experience crafting breakthrough campaigns for brands big and small, including Budweiser, Hershey’s, Nike, Canada Goose, and many more.

Outside of advertising, she spends most of her time chasing after her 3-year old daughter.

Chantal Gobeil
Creative Director
K72

From Sydney to Montréal, Chantal has been shaping her vision of design and communication for over twenty years. She is drawn to projects where intelligence reigns, firmly believing that aesthetics should support insight. Collaboration inspires her, no matter how small, monumental, local, global, early-stage and established a company is. Her objective is to work with various experts to generate discussions that serve to enhance the creative product and tell the right story. She joined K72 in 2018 and is very proud to be involved in building this new agency.

Kareem Halfawi
ACD
Salt XC

Kareem is an Associate Creative Director at SALT XC, specialized in creating fully integrated brand experiences across digital, social, content, retail, and XM.

As an interdisciplinary creative with published work in Photography, Illustration, Graphic Design/Art Direction, and Copywriting, Kareem has had the privilege of designing experiences for world-renowned brands including Google, YouTube, Uber, Mercedes, Coca Cola, RBC, and Rogers. His work has been recognized by Strategy, AToMiC, CMAs, D&AD, Applied Arts, and more.

Pedro Izzo
ACD
Performance Art

Pedro Izzo is an ACD at Performance Art, and a multitalented creative with a background in art direction. He hails from Brazil and has called Toronto home for the past 10 years. With two decades of experience in the industry, Pedro has worked at some of the top ad agencies in the country, including Cossette, CP+B, Leo Burnett, and Sid Lee.

His work has been awarded at the Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, LIA, ADCC, and the Webbys. Throughout his career, he's done memorable campaigns for clients like Black&Abroad, McDonald's, Yellow Pages, TD Bank, Lyft, Printed by Somerset, and many others.

Shawn King
Senior VP, ECD
Trampoline

Highly respected by clients, creatives, strategists, and the industry alike – Shawn King has been an advertising agency Partner and Chief Creative Officer with 29 years of experience to back it up. He’s an Amazing Race Canada competitor, musician and advocate who’s one part Jagger, one part Sam Crow, but all business.

Shawn loves ideas, adventure and he loves to keep things simple. He gets goosebumps when he sees great work - and optimistic when there’s work to be done. And with a genuine and personable approach to everything he does – working with Shawn is truly something special.

Internationally recognized and nationally regarded, Shawn’s passion for creativity, common sense and drive continues to push him and anything he does toward new and exciting horizons. Someone once said “common sense ain’t so common.” That’s because Shawn took it all. He’s a helluva guy that you want in your corner.

Allen Kwong
Group Creative Director
Taxi

Allen is a Group 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.

Over the past 20 years, he’s had the privilege of working at some of Canada’s top agencies for a wide variety of clients – from iconic global brands like Volkswagen, Frito-Lay, Microsoft, and Ikea – to beloved Canadian brands like John Fluevog Shoes, The Weather Network and Maple Leaf Foods. His work has been recognized at the One Show, D&AD, Clios, Communication Arts, the Webby Awards, Marketing Awards, and many others.

Thembi Lassiter
Creative Director
Ogilvy Health

Thembi Lassiter loves art & design. After her time at The Creative Circus portfolio school, she launched her career pursuing her passion over the past 14 years as a vital part of many inspiring creative teams.

Thembi’s first decade in advertising was spent in the consumer realm on brands like Air Canada, L’Oreal and YMCA. She made the switch to pharma, where she is a valued team member and leader driven to use her creativity to effect change in healthcare and help Canadians.

Thembi has worked on and led several vaccine brands during a time when vaccines have taken centre stage in Canada and around the world. She has also been part of several important launches this year, and is a creative lead on brands in immunization & Immunology and within the mental health category.

Thembi has fully embraced the challenges that come with finding creative solutions in the highly regulated Canadian pharma market, helping to nurture her team while also making a difference to her brands and their life-changing impact.

Tony Lee
Founder
Crank Idea Corporation

Tony's advertising odyssey began in an era when best practice was making an ad interesting enough that people noticed and talked about it. He has worked on a shedload of brands for dozens of agencies in Canada and the U.S., both full time and freelance, taught, and won enough awards along the way to get past thinking about them.

In 2004, he founded crank idea corporation and also got past letting fear be a motivator, leaving just nagging uncertainties to plague him. Tony now concentrates on maximizing fun and minimizing shaking his head and fist at the world.

Paul Little
Group Creative Director
Juniper Park\TBWA

Paul Little is one of Canada’s most respected copywriters and Creative Directors.

He’s worked on Boston Pizza, Tangerine Bank, Schneiders, Koodo Mobile, Scotiabank, ADIDAS, INFINITI, and Major League Soccer.

His successes include the popular Tangerine Raptors playoff campaign, the award-winning Boston Pizza Patio Chairs and a few Cannes Lions winning Vancouver International Film Festival campaigns.

Paul’s work has won at every major award show: Cannes, the One Show, Clios, Webbys, D&AD and Best-of-Show at the Marketing Awards.

Paul has judged at Cannes and Communication Arts, spoken on panels and has had his work featured in Contagious, Fast Company and in the textbook, Advertising Now.

His headline for BC Lung Association is often listed as one of the best headline ads written.

Jill Mack
Creative Director
DonerNorth

A childhood spent watching underrated classics like Who’s the Boss and Mr. Mom led Jill Mack to believe advertising was the cool thing to do when you grow up. She is now grown up and doing just that.

She’s launched products, raised brand profiles, and written a whole lot of words in between. She has worked on everything from cars and beer to bees and funeral homes. Some of that work has earned her awards including Clios, Effies and Epicas. Some of it has helped her mom understand what she does for a living.

She is currently a Creative Director at DonerNorth.

Stuart MacMillan
ECD
No Fixed Address

Stuart is ECD at NFA Montreal. He started his career in London with stops in Amsterdam and Berlin before moving closer to home, becoming CD on the Volkswagen account at Havas Montreal.

He then moved to lg2 Montreal, spending 10 years trying to learn french and leading projects that were awarded by Cannes, One Show, Clio, Marketing and others before joining the No Fixed Address team last year. He's still learning french.

Jon Manning
Copywriter & Creative Director

Jon is a freelance copywriter. He collaborates with clients and agencies throughout the country to make work that stands out and sometimes wins awards. Honestly, he’s just happy to be here.

Jamie Marcovitch
Executive Creative Director
John St.

Jamie is an Executive Creative Director at john st. His journey began with two failed LSAT exams and the sudden realization that the law is something he’s better at breaking than defending. And that led him to copywriting and his first job at BBDO. Since then, Jamie has led the creative at Ogilvy, Anomaly, Rethink and now at john st, helping build brands ranging from Molson, Budweiser and Kraft to Hershey’s, Nescafé and Tangerine. His work has been recognized at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, CA, Clios to name a few.

When Jamie isn’t busy building brands, he’s busy trying to convince his two kids to listen to the Clash, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones instead of just hip-hop. He’s yet to be successful in that venture.

Julie Markle
ECD
Bleublancrouge

Julie brings a wealth of experience on global brands, and her long-held belief in doing work that gets noticed, strikes an emotional chord and tries to change the world along the way.

For years, her creative ideas and disruptive mindset have been helping brands like Huggies, Dove, Hellmann’s and Heart & Stroke Foundation stand for more. From communicating the importance of skin-to-skin hugs for babies on Huggies to shaping the self-esteem of girls on Dove, Julie has always found new ways to change hearts and minds.

Her work has been consistently recognized by Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Clios, CA and the Marketing Awards. While she's proud of her numerous Effies wins, because it proves her work is good for business, she is even more proud of her Glass Lion for Change shortlist at Cannes, because it proves her work is good for people.

Marissa Mastenbroek
Art Director, Creative Director

Marissa's husband thinks all advertising people have longer right arms than left (from all the self-congratulatoriness). He may be right, but who doesn't love an award show? Marissa doesn't not. Especially judging, as she considers it an honour.

Her favourite things about advertising are the people in it. Building life-long relationships with supersmart people is what has kept her in demand as a freelancer. Maybe a little talent too.

She’s a highly awarded Art Director and Creative Director with 20+ years of agency experience at some of Canada’s best agencies. She's done work for all the categories including beauty, cars, computers, banks, food, alcohol and cannabis. Her work has been awarded all over the place. Just like everyone else on this amazing jury.

Natasha Michalowska
Creative Director, Art

Natasha Michalowska is ranked as one of Canada’s Top 10 Art Directors. Over her 16 year career her work has garnered awards from every notable national and international award show.

Getting a highly successful start as a Graphic Designer working on projects such as the launch of the globally award-winning SickKids VS platform, Natasha quickly transitioned to Art Director and rose to her current role as Creative Director. Mostly choosing to work in a freelance capacity at top agencies such as BHLA, Zulu Alpha Kilo, and Sid Lee, Natasha had lengthier stops at Cossette and most recently Rethink.

Natasha’s creative vision has achieved significant attention and business results for clients such as IKEA, PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, NFL, Google, McDonalds, Molson, SickKids, eos, HomeSense, Public Mobile, PC Financial as well as launching a new cannabis category with Canopy Growth.

Hugo Morin
Creative Director
Havas

Former illustrator and Flash animator during the prehistory of the Web, AD, and now CD slash problem solver at Havas Montreal. He is a tireless advocate of an interdisciplinary approach to advertising, striving to teach creatives, managers and clients that everything you don't understand is the most exciting thing.

Cindy Navarro
CD, Art Director
Courage

Cindy Marie Navarro is a Creative Director at Courage in Toronto. Her work has garnered a resume of industry awards including multiple Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, London International Awards, The One Show Awards and more. A few years ago, Business Insider named Cindy one of ‘30 Most Creative People in Advertising Under 30’, and has been ranked one of the top 5 Art Directors in Strategy Magazine’s Creative Report Card.

When she’s not in advertising mode, you’ll find Cindy baking unhealthy desserts and then working them off by chasing her super energetic toddler everywhere.

Olivia Peet
Creative Director
TANK Worldwide

Not many love stories start with “Important Safety Information.” But then again, Olivia isn’t like many copywriters. She began her tenure in healthcare advertising as an assistant account executive working on OTC brands. After accepting that she was not actually proficient in Excel, Olivia soon realized that her true passion lay in storytelling.

From there, she hit the ground running with a singular mission: to bring brands to life. Over a decade and multiple industry awards later, Olivia and copywriting are still going strong.

Now as a Creative Director at TANK, she is dedicated to making beautiful creative that is deeply grounded in the emotional and strategic insights that make our work meaningful for the people who need it most. Olivia is inspired every day by the lives we touch and the impactful work we do—and the honeymoon is far from over.

Kate Qually
Creative Director

Kate Qually is a Creative Director in Vancouver. She’s a writer by trade and an art director by self-belief. She champions strong insights that drive relatable storytelling, putting a focus on simplicity along every touchpoint of a campaign’s journey.

Kate has refined her craft and supported teams on clients big, small, and everything in between. She has helped launch several brands for TELUS, including their health, home security, online security, and community investment divisions. Most recently, she lead the creative of two brands that just launched in Canada – Dexcom G6 and HearCANADA. Locally, she has played key roles in developing the Vancouver Whitecaps FC brand, a client that coincides perfectly with her lifelong passion (obsession?) for playing soccer.

As one of the founders of Stop the Party, she is actively working to make a difference in the gender wage gap in Canada. The self-funded, independent initiative was created by a small group of women working in different agencies across Canada, supported by amazing suppliers that help bring the work to life.

Spencer Ryan
Creative Director
Broken Heart Love Affair

Like most other people in advertising, Spencer ended up here through an unconventional path, studying everything from Engineering to Political Science, and eventually falling into advertising.

He’s had the privilege of working alongside some incredibly talented friends, colleagues, and amazing clients over the years. Spencer’s work is nearly always ignored by his family, and he only craves their acceptance and pride, although he did work on a few commercials for Egg Farmers of Canada that his father-in-law really enjoys. Also, he made a film where an elderly man with a piano in his back sings and he’s being played by another man, which he is proud of.

Dan Strasser
EVP, ECD
Believeco

Dan is the EVP, Executive Creative Director at Believeco, a new, national independent agency. Dan has worked his way across the world: from DDB offices in Chicago, Vancouver and Germany to Leo Burnett Zurich, and back home to Canada with Bensimon Byrne and OneMethod. Along the way, he picked up a few Cannes Lions, experience with international brands, and even a Super Bowl spot of the decade. At Believeco, Dan oversees the creative team nationally, and lends his expertise and passion to crafting impactful and resonant work across a variety of sectors.

Jennifer Szilagyi
ACD
Target

Jen Szilagyi is a landscape painter, proud dog mom (x3), and is currently an Associate Creative Director at Target Marketing in Newfoundland & Labrador. After graduating from Humber’s Creative Advertising program, Jen gained experience at a number of Toronto’s top agencies including Juniper Park\TBWA and lg2 where she worked on brands such as CIBC, EOS, GoDaddy, Catelli, and the LCBO.

Jen is still very proud of her internationally award-winning campaign for the YWCA. Entitled “Blamé”, the campaign drew attention to how women are blamed for their own sexual assaults. In 2021, Jen took her biggest leap yet, moving to the east coast and into a leadership role. When she’s not working, you can find Jen soaking up her surroundings and being inspired by the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.

Victor Yves
Group Creative Director
Publicis

Victor Yves is a Brazilian creative with a background in graphic design and art direction, working as Group Creative Director at Publicis Canada.

He worked with a wide range of global clients, from non-profit institutions, like National Geographic, to major brands such as Jeep, Visa, Heineken, Uber, Whatsapp From Facebook, Boehringer Ingelheim, Havaianas Alpargatas, Mars, AB InBev, Nestlé, Powerade, Whirpool and many more.

His work has been recognized by some of the most important advertising awards, such as D&AD, Cannes, The One Show, Clio, El Ojo, London Festival, CCSP and more.

And in 2019, he was selected to be part of the Brazilian delegation that went to Cannes to compete in the Young Lions Competition.

He also worked at agencies such as F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Almap/BBDO, Foote Cone & Belding and Accenture Interactive.

Rob Sweetman
Co-Founder, ECD
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.

Eva Van den Bulcke
VP, Production
Septième

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.

Nick Asik
Creative Director
Freelance

Stuart Campbell
Cinematographer
Mantl

Originally from Scarborough, Ontario, Cinematographer Stuart Campbell graduated from the Advertising Program at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004. He quickly became one of Canada's top Art Directors working for several notable Ad Agencies such as Ogilvy, John Street, and Sid Lee. During this time Stuart created several award-winning campaigns for recognizable brands; Sport Chek, War Child, and Dove to name a few. His attraction to storytelling and motion pictures ultimately proved to be his true calling and in 2012 changed career paths to focus on cinematography. Stuart honed his skills shooting commercials and short films and was quickly recognized for bringing conceptual ideas and emotion to all his projects.

In 2021, Stuart’s work caught the attention of Oscar-nominated writer/director Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River, Yellowstone) who hired him to co-DP Paramount Network’s crime thriller series "Mayor of Kingstown". He then was brought on Hulu's Emmy Award-Winning “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Season 5, working with executive producers Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Miller, Warren Littlefield, and John Weber.

In 2022 he was brought back for Season 2 of"Mayor of Kingstown" as lead DP.

Paul-Etienne Cote
CEO
Circonflex

Paul-Étienne Côté is a musician, composer, producer and CEO/Founder at Circonflex.

He began his music career on stage, notably with Patrick Watson, before making the leap into composing music for film and television.

After getting his start composing for over 500 episodes of international TV series, it was in the world of advertising that Paul-Étienne continued his success.

He founded his studio Circonflex in Montréal in 2009, followed by Circonflex Paris in 2017, and Circonflex Toronto in 2022.

Circonflex is a music + sound agency specialising in original and bespoke music, sonic branding, sound design and audio recording.

Over the years, the awards for Paul-Étienne’s and Circonflex’s work accumulated: SOCAN Awards, Epica Awards, The One Show, Club des DA, Marketing Awards, Clio Awards and Cannes Lions, to name a few.

Francesco Grandi
Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy

Shenny Jaffer
Executive Producer
Smile + Wave

Shenny is an executive producer with extensive experience in production and post production for video content and broadcast.

She is a collaborative partner who supports strategic and creative thinking from planning to execution across multiple platforms, someone with a progressive outlook and drive to produce great work, and a leader and mentor who successfully manages the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Shenny is someone who wants to be part of a change, having received multiple awards for unique marketing campaigns.

Laura Kim
Art Director, Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors

An art director and designer by trade, Laura Kim is dedicated to using advertising and design as a means of shifting and creating culture.

She has led teams for some of the most influential brands in the world, including adidas, Burger King, Dell, Red Bull and Trojan, winning awards globally for agencies such as Sid Lee, TAXI and Bleublancrouge.

Her time as Executive Creative Director at Forsman & Bodenfors led to multiple awards and funding for Innocence Canada. Known for her insights on design and aesthetics, Laura finds the most rewarding part of her job the opportunity to mentor emerging talent.

She is always inspired by encouraging diverse creatives from all backgrounds to enter the industry and thrive.

Steve Mottershead
Creative Director
Artjail

Steve Mottershead, is the Founder and Creative Director of the award winning VFX studio Artjail, with Offices in NY, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

After growing up in a small town outside of Toronto, Steve graduated from the Media Arts Film Program at Sheridan College, As well as a joint program in Fine Arts at McMaster University and Dundas Valley School of Arts.

Over the span of his career as a Lead VFX Artist and Creative Director Steve has worked with such clients as Apple, Google, Ikea, Nike, Ford, Molson, Geico, Squarespace, Coca-Cola, Lincoln, Jaguar, Cadillac, Canadian Olympic Committee, Video Artist Doug Aitken, NHL, Honda and, Lexus.

Steve has played a lead role on many award winning projects that include many Cannes Lions, an Academy Award nominated documentary “Cutie and the Boxer”, HPA Awards, MTV video awards, AICE, AICP, ADCC awards as well as an Emmy win for the Alex Gibney Documentary “Going Clear”.

Alanna Nathanson
CO-CEO & CCO
G&G Advertising

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 5 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.

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.

Mark Rajakovic
Director, Composer
Rajakovic Electric

Mark is co-founder and Creative Director of Rajakovic Electric, a Toronto based music and audio company.

He is a music composer, voice director, and sound designer, whose commercial, film, and tv audio work has been awarded by every major international award show.

His unique approach to storytelling through music and sound has helped create many impactful and memorable campaigns.

Raj Ramnauth
Founder, Editor
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.

Ann Rubenstein
Content Producer

Ann started her career at Tatham EURO RSCG in Chicago, Illinois as a junior producer a million years ago.

She earned her stripes doing countless test commercials for P&G, Nabisco and others.

From there she went on to become a VP/ Executive Producer @ DDB Chicago where she worked on everything from hamburgers to life insurance to shampoo.

In 2004 it was time for a new adventure so Ann, her husband, and Rebus, the dog, moved to Vancouver, BC.

Upon arriving in Canada, Ann was fortunate to work at Rethink Productions as Director of Broadcast Production for 6 years where she helped the agency win many awards and accolades she then became Director of Broadcast & Digital Production for 1.5 years.

She now works freelance for agencies across North America and beyond.

Ann enjoys mentoring jr producers and giving talks/seminars to students starting out in production.

Gavin Alexander
Head of Business Development
Vapor Music

After relocating to Toronto a decade ago from the UK, Gavin has been able to feed his passion for all things cultural, and in particular new music, thanks to the huge artistic community that creates incredible innovative work throughout all of Canada.

During his time at Vapor Music, a full service audio house, Gavin's business development skills have been utilized to enable Vapor Music build an ever growing Long Form division which has been providing ground breaking audio expertise across many platforms ranging from prime time drama series such as the upcoming Global TV series, Robyn Hood, right through to award winning animated series & specials including Netflix's Hilda and Apple TV+'s Sago Mini Friends.

Kristina Anzlinger
Executive Producer
Outsider Editorial

Kristina is a partner and the Executive Producer at Outsider Editorial, a global Editing boutique based in Toronto, Canada.

Born and raised in Germany, she started her career in Spain as a Production Assistant in 2003 and never looked back. She quickly moved to Line producer on Service jobs for international clients from around the world such as BMW, OPel, Toyota, Vodafone to name a few. After moving to Canada in 2008 she continued working in production until changing to Agency side in 2013. In 2018 she left her career as an agency producer to open Outsider Editorial alongside Alison Gordon, Chris Murphy and Michael Barker.

Her vast experience from both production and agency side has helped her shape Outsider Editorial’s model to adapt to a global market. Recognition came in its second year, when Outsider Editorial was shortlisted in the Shots Awards as editorial house of the year. In only 4 years the edit shop has added an impressive list of awards and nominations and just last year added official representation in the US.

Christina Hodnet
Commercial Director
Spears & Arrows

Christina has directed TV commercials for over 20 years. With uncompromising performances, she delivers cinematic reality to clients around the world.

Her innate understanding of sublime moments of interaction between people blends with her spirit as a woman and her patience as a mother. This gives her the ability to capture the innocent nuances of children, babies, teens, parents, family life, and fashion. Exposing the beautifully awkward and imperfect reality life offers up. “I’m interested in the moment in between the moments,” she says. “The photo you don’t post because it’s not pristine, but in reality is more representative of your life and charming than the flawless one.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Christina got her first experience in the film industry as a young teen in front of the camera. Working with incredible photographers and directors ignited a spark that led her to pursue a degree at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She now happily calls Toronto home along with her feature film director husband, two children, and one covid inspired rescue dog that turned out to be more of a dingo fox mix than a dog (oops).

Evaan Kheraj
Photographer & Director

Evaan Kheraj is a New York & Vancouver based photographer whose love for documenting spans decades and genres. With a background in new media, he has built a career on bringing fresh concepts and a sense of the real-world into all of his work.

Whether it’s editorial, commercial, or fine art, Evaan’s adaptability, sincerity, and work ethic makes him the supreme collaborator. He’s an artist who’s always rallied against what’s common, developing a cohesive aesthetic that reflects just that. When not developing his craft and working on various projects, he’s documenting the lives of his wife and 3 children at home. Past clients include: Elle US, Teen Vogue, Kenneth Cole, Adidas, Warner Brothers Music, Bubly and more.

Rose Sauquillo
Creative Director, Senior Art Director

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.

Louise Villanueva
Global Program Lead
Media.Monks

Louise has worn many hats over the course of her 15 years in the industry. From public relations, to art and design, to freelance agency producer in the world of branded content, she leans on her affinities for healing and reflection to bring an element of true, human connection and authenticity to each and every project.

This has led to collaborations with brands such as HP, Linkedin, Staples, Subaru, McDonalds, Google, Rogers, The Artist Project, One of a Kind Show, Evergreen, and Investors Group, (to name a few). She currently exercises her talent for bringing ideas to life at Media.Monks as Global Program Lead and Account Director, while also fulfilling her not-so-secret passion for voice over acting on the side.

Louise is newly based in Brooklyn, NY.

Jacqueline Lane
Executive Creative Director
Whitman Emorson

Jacqueline Lane is Partner and Creative Director at Whitman Emorson 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 (Public Address, 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.

Howard Poon
VP, Design
DDB

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.

Alex Boland
Creative Director
Bruce Mau Design

As Creative Director at Bruce Mau Design, Alex leads a team of multidisciplinary designers with a focus on creating work with concept, craft, and cultural impact at its core. With over ten years of design & advertising experience under his belt, he has developed work for a multitude of organizations, including the Toronto Raptors, BLM Canada, The High Line NY, Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Museum for African Art.

Prior to BMD, Alex worked at Champions Design in New York City, and spent seven years establishing, growing, and leading the design practice at Sid Lee Toronto. He holds a Bachelor of Design degree in Graphic Design from OCAD University.

Alex's work has been displayed at the Cannes Festival of Creativity and the Toronto Design Exchange, and he has won multiple industry awards for his work, including Cannes Lions, One Show, and ADC.

Sarah Di Domenico
Co-Founder, Creative Director
Wedge

Sarah Di Domenico is Co-Founder, Creative Director of Wedge – a strategically backed, creative brand agency for distinct character & narrative, based in Montreal & Los Angeles.

Wedge is known for creating award-winning brands across new generation CPG as well as evolving legacy namesakes such as Indigo, Canada Dry, and more into their new era.

Victoria Di Valerio
Creative Director, Design
No Fixed Address

Victoria is a passionate creative director with an eye for beautiful design and a penchant for solving complex business problems. She currently leads all the design work at No Fixed Address, and her background in 360° art direction has shown proven success across both traditional and digital platforms.

Victoria has worked in highly regarded agencies from Montreal to Toronto, such as Publicis, Bzoing, Gale Partners, and SGM. She has worked on everything from websites, apps and emails to brand redesigns, packaging, and building visual identities from scratch. She has worked on brands from big to small, such as Diageo, Bell Media, Polar Bears International, Insurance Store, NFL Canada, Invisalign, BMW, Godiva, Allstate, Genting World Resorts Malaysia, Complexe Desjardins and First Capital Realty.

Dani Hall
Co-Founder
Design Of Brand

Dani Hall is a designer and co-founder of Design of Brand, a Toronto-based consultancy that specializes in brand design, naming and strategy for entrepreneurs.

Their clients include Greenhouse Juice, Rainbo, Barbet, Othership, Ace Valley, Superette and Fairgrounds. Prior to founding DOB in 2018, she spent a decade in New York, where she worked at MoMA and Pentagram. She has a BFA from Parsons School of Design.

Rasna Jaswal
Creative Director, Design
Broken Heart Love Affair

Rasna is a Creative Director of Design at Broken Heart Love Affair. Rasna's work has been published and has received numerous industry accolades from Cannes Lion, One Show, the Advertising and Design Club of Canada, D&AD, London International Awards and Applied Arts Magazine. With over two decades of experience, Rasna has had the privilege of working on some of Canada's most iconic brands such as Kids Help phone, TELUS, Air Canada, Shoppers, Mazda, Walmart, Loblaws to name a few. She has also worked on Tokyo Smoke, TRUSS Beverage Co., Tough Turban, Internova Travel Group and her most notable work has been on the “#UNIGNORABLE” campaign for United Way Canada.

She is fuelled by her love for art and culture.

Norma MacDonald
VP of Design
Engine Digital

Norma is an award-winning designer who has worked across top-tier agencies for the better part of two decades. She co-founded the Fjord Toronto studio within Accenture Song, building the visual design practice from the ground up. It’s there that she led digital transformations for the likes of Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, LCBO and BMO. The kind that even her parents recognize.

She nurtures a beginners mindset and is known for her ability to see the potential for beauty in everything. Her work comes from a place of empathy and speaks to the hearts and minds of audiences and judges alike. She has been recognized by Cannes, Advertising & Design Club of Canada and Applied Arts and sits on the advisory board for Sheridan College.

She recently opened a new chapter in her career, joining the very talented folks at Engine Digital. It’s there she’ll take an active role in shaping their growth in Eastern Canada.

Outside of design, Norma is an active equestrian, competing in both Canada and the US. She trains horses on her family farm north of Toronto alongside her husband, daughter, two dogs and bunny, Checkers.

Mario Mercier
President, Creative Director
Compagnie et Cie

Mario Messier has been a dominant figure in design for the past 20 years. He first studied film and then developed his passion for design at Lumbago.

In 1996, he founded Orangetango, which earned him an international reputation. In 2015, eighteen years and more than four hundred international awards later, Mario left Orangetango to found Compagnie et Cie.

He chaired the 2015 Grafika competition. Since 2021, he has also been co-president of the Societé des designers graphiques du Québec.

Dylan Staniul
Principal, Creative Director
Burnkit

Dylan has worked with a dizzying array of industries and clients, guiding them through a brand and design process that encourages dialogue, reveals creative opportunities, inspires confidence and builds consensus between stakeholders. He works hard to understand clients’ passions and problems, getting to the heart of their brand story.

Dylan has been invited to judge prestigious design competitions for publications such as Communication Arts and Applied Arts, and his work has been consistently awarded for over 20 years.

Teresa Tam
Creative Director, Design

Teresa is an independent creative director and designer based in Toronto.

She has over 10 years of experience as both a designer and art director, and co-led the award-winning design department at john st. in the late 2010s.

Since declaring her own personal Independence Day in early 2021, she has collaborated with agencies such as 123W, GUT Agency, We Are Social, Metier Creative, Massive Change, and Joan Agency NYC.

Her curiosity for people, culture, and brands has always been her driving force for creating meaningful conceptual work. She leads with empathy, and is a firm believer that loving people, specifically the ones you work with, is the secret to unlocking great creative work.

Some brands she's enjoyed working on: Lululemon, Hudson's Bay, Tim Horton's, Starbucks, Shopper's, Maybelline, KFC and more!

Hans Thiessen
Partner & Creative Director of Design
Rethink

Hans leads the design team at Rethink – one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Ad Agencies, Canada’s Design Agency of the Year (four years in a row and counting), and all-around fun place to work.

He has had the pleasure of working with a wide range of global brands (including Kraft Heinz, IKEA, Tazo, RXBAR, Molson Coors, Nike, EA, Mattel, Arc’teryx), non-profits, and household names in the making.

Hans' work has been recognized with a variety of awards (including a D&AD Black Pencil), press (from Rolling Stone to Ripley’s Believe It or Not), and the occasional cease and desist letter.

Outside of work, you'll find Hans with his wife and four sons, most likely rollerblading on the streets of Vancouver, rain or shine.

Blair Thomson
Founder, Creative Director
Believe in

Blair Thomson is the Founder and Creative Director of design practice Believe in, with studios in Canada and the UK. During his 25 years in business, Blair’s adaptability, versatility and desire for creative excellence has allowed him to successfully work with clients both large and small across diverse industries and scales. A harmony between strategic foundation, unique ideas and beautiful outcomes lie at the heart of Blair’s approach and creative processes.

Blair is the Collector, Archivist and Historian behind Canada Modern, a physical collection and study of Canadian graphic design from 1960 — 1985. He is a Fellow of the Design Professionals of Canada, and currently sits on the Board of the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.

Blair is also the co-author of the book Graphic Stamps by revered design publishers Unit Editions in London, England.

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.

Chris Braden
Co-Founder, CCO
Public Address

Chris is Co-Founder and CCO at Public Address, where he leads strategic design initiatives for partners such as Netflix, MGM Studios, the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Chris has also served as a member of the Faculty of Design at OCAD University, teaching typography and design, and a guest lecturer at ArtCenter College of Design.

Shawn Lambino
Director of Design
Anomaly

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

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

Christine Mangosing
Principal Creative, Founder
CMANGO DESIGN

Christine Mangosing is a Toronto-based designer and art director with over 15 years of experience in bringing bespoke brand identities, distinctive UI/UX experiences, and multi-platform creative solutions to life across private and public sectors.

Currently ACD at Dentsu Creative, Christine is also the founder + principle creative of boutique design studio CMANGO DESIGN, and played a key role in evolving the visual language at national music publication Exclaim! Magazine as its art director over the course of a decade. Through her work, she merges the complexities of culture and community to craft authentic and impactful design stories for clients to tell, both locally and internationally.

Michael Mavian
Creative Director of Design
Sid Lee

Michael Mavian is a Creative Director with over 12 years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams to create distinctive brands, robust visual identity systems, and innovative experiences. He has built brands from the ground up, revitalized established ones, and created a range of design systems, campaigns, and communications for early-stage start-ups all the way to large-scale global brands. Michael is currently based in Toronto where he is a Creative Director of Design at Sid Lee.

Previously he was a Senior Art Director for lululemon on their Global Brand & Design team where he was focused on leading creative direction and development of their running and footwear categories. In this role he produced graphic identity systems, 360 global campaigns, experiential and event designs, and ambassador storytelling and content creation. Michael was also a co-founder and Creative Director for Rally, a better-for-you beer brand inspiring people to get outside, get moving, and exercise balance.

Michael received his Bachelor of Design degree in Graphic Design from The Ontario College of Art & Design. He has collaborated with partners such as adidas, The Beverly Center Los Angeles, lululemon, Aurora Cannabis, Bruce Mau Design, ie University, Pride Toronto, London Design Biennale, The Van Alen Institute, and Waterloo Greenway.

Ming Mikaeo
Associate Design Director, CD

Ming is a multidisciplinary Associate Design Director / Creative Designer, specializing in graphic design and brand development.

Ming works seamlessly across media channels, having done projects ranging from branding and packaging design to art direction and design systems for clients such as Tokyo Smoke, Loblaws, No Frills and Home Hardware.

He has an expansive background, having worked at design shops such as Bruce Mau Design and client-side for Tokyo Smoke. He has helped build brands at agencies like FCB/SIX, john st., BBDO Canada and One Twenty Three West.

Jay Wall
Principal Creative Director
Briteweb

Jay is the Principal Creative Director at Briteweb, a creative agency dedicated to social change. Jay founded the design studio RallyRally which merged with Briteweb where he now leads the team in building brands, websites, publications and campaigns.

His work has been recognized with six So(cial) Good Design Awards and he was named the national winner of the 2020 RGD UltraBold Awards. Jay is also a dad, cyclist, and part-time professor at the George Brown College School of Design.

Wain Choi
Creative Director

Wain has returned to Toronto after 16 years abroad, most recently as Chief Creative Officer/EVP at CJ Live City in Seoul, Korea. His well-respected career has taken him across the globe to Europe and Asia. He has held leading creative roles in major global advertising agencies including Cossette, Young & Rubicam, Dentsu, Ogilvy and Cheil Worldwide. Wain has extensive experience in leading global brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, GM, Ford, Toyota F1 and Samsung.  

His works have been recognized and awarded at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Clio Awards, London International Festival, New York Festival, Spikes, Adfest and others. In addition, his extensive jury duties include Cannes Lions, D&AD Foreman Jury, The One Show, Spikes Jury President, Adfest Jury President, Cristal Jury President, AdStars Jury President, Clio, Dubai Lynx, Red Apple, New York Festivals, Kam Fan Award, etc.

Wain Choi has been a keynote speaker internationally including Cannes Lions 2017, Dubai Lynx 2015, AdAsia Bali 2017, A Fireside Chat Singapore Advertisers Association 2017, Goafest India 2018 and Brand Magic Summit Mauritius 2018.

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.

Marilou Aubin
Partner, ECD
LG2

Marilou has been an industry leader for nearly 20 years. She has chaired or co-chaired Quebec’s and Canada’s most prestigious creative awards shows. She has also sat on the jury for the CLIO awards and won a scholarship to attend the Saïd Business School’s international Women Transforming Leadership program, which aims to promote female leadership around the world.

Marilou is constantly on the look-out for ground-breaking ways to create engaging experiences, work collaboratively and express a brand’s purpose. Throughout her career, she has crafted over 50 award-winning projects that have gained local and international praise

Creative Director at lg2 since 2011, and now Partner and Executive Creative Director, Marilou has been a driving force behind key accounts, helping lg2 become Canada’s largest independent creative agency in the country.

Andrew Bernardi
Creative Director, Art Director

Andrew has over a decade of experience creating disruptive work in every medium. From complex, data-driven web tools to minimalistic print campaigns to cinematic film. He’s worked on global clients like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, MeToo, Axe and BMW. As well as homegrown clients like President’s Choice and the Ministry of Transportation. His work has won at almost every international award show, including a Grand Prix at Cannes and a D&AD Black Pencil.

Alice Blastorah
Creative Director, Art Director

Alice Blastorah is Creative Director with a deep passion for craft and art direction.

With a career spanning Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, Alice has consistently created award-winning, culture-defining work. Her campaigns have been recognized in every major award show from Cannes to Clios to the Webbys and have been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Fast Company, The Guardian and Mashable amongst many others. Some of her notable clients include UberEats, Roblox, Volkswagen, Toyota and the global Olympics and Paralympics.

Hemal Dhanjee
ACD
Courage

Hemal’s advertising career has spanned over eight years as a writer at some of Canada’s top agencies. He has helped build award-winning platforms and campaigns, including Black & Abroad’s “Black Elevation Map,” LifeStyles’ “Publicly Traded,” and Home Hardware’s “Here’s How”.

His work has been recognized nationally and internationally by Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Clios, One Show, Spike’s Asia and ADCCs, among others. He is currently an Associate Creative Director at Courage, a fully independent creative agency in Toronto.

Marty Hoefkes
Creative Director
FCB

Marty Hoefkes started in advertising at Leo Burnett in 2011, and is now a Creative Director at FCB Canada, where he has worked since 2017. In that time, he has been honoured to have his work awarded at Cannes, the One Show, D&AD, Clios, and many other prestigious local and international shows.

Some notable highlights from his career include writing award-winning campaigns for iconic brands like CDSS, Lotto Max, Air Canada, BMO, TD, IKEA, Mr. Clean, and Gain, staying partnered with the same art director since he started (hi Mike), producing only one ad that he's truly embarrassed about, and receiving an award in 2017 for having received the most awards.

He hopes to one day see the Earth from space.

Michael Houldsworth
Senior Writer
Taxi

After a chance encounter with a copy of ‘Hey Whipple Squeeze This’, Mike was seduced away from a prospective life as a French teacher and sent on an alternate path towards trying to convince his peers that his puns are “very good and smart, actually”.

Along the way, Mike took part in D&Ad’s New Blood Academy (where he learned from some of the greats), worked in the UK (where he learned the ropes), and made the move over to Canada (where he learned he pronounces some words wrong).

Now working for TAXI, he helped the Vancouver office win their first awards at Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios, The Marketing Awards, D&Ad, and many more.

Elma Karabegovic
Creative Director

Elma Karabegovic is an internationally awarded Creative Director who was named top 10 Next Creative Leaders by One Club in 2020. Her work has been recognized by every international award show including two best of disciplines and 11 gold pencils at One Show, and most recently has won a Gold Creative Effectiveness Lion for her work on ‘Project Understood’ for the Canadian Down syndrome Society. When she’s not making ads, she’s teaching them at Miami Ad School.

Erin Kawalecki
Partner, Chief Creative Officer
Angry Butterfly

Erin co-founded Angry Butterfly 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.

As a mom to three young kids, there is, literally, nothing you can’t throw at her.

Darian Kovacs
Founder, Creative Director
Jelly Marketing

Darian is an Indigenous (Metis) business leader with years of experience in marketing, communications, and public relations. Throughout his career, he has also been a founder and board member of various foundations and charitable organizations. Darian is a co-host on the show Marketing Jam (featured on all the podcast channels and Amazon Prime).

Through his award-winning company,Jelly Digital Marketing & PR, Darian has worked with various local, national, and global brands building and executing their digital & PR strategy.

He co-founded the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference and he’s a regular contributor with BCBusiness magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, the Globe & Mail and Forbes. Being both an educator and practitioner, Darian’s mix of stories, practical examples, and takeaways leaves audiences feeling inspired and equipped to implement SEO, digital ad, social media, and PR strategies into their organizations.

Darian brings his wealth of experience as well as his educational and interactive teaching style to conferences and workshops all over North America. Having interviewed over 400 such as Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, the co-founder of Netflix, and marketers from Apple, LEGO, Starbucks, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and Buzzfeed, Darian’s recently published book Marketing Mentors highlights 100 of the top interviews over the years.

Darian additionally runs Jelly Academy - Canada’s largest digital marketing school which has recently been accepted in all of BC’s High Schools as a four credit course. Jelly Academy has provided just over $1.3 Million in scholarships to students across Canada wanting to develop a career in marketing. He is on the board of NPower Canada. He lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four kids and loves to dabble in watercolour, ink drawing, and gardening.

Sabaa Quao
Chief Creative Officer
Cossette

With over 30 years of experience, Sabaa Quao is a creative leader, serial entrepreneur, and business strategist.

As a digital and social veteran, he has built and grown several platforms and companies across the content, tech and culture space—including Newsrooms, Filminute, and Wealthie Works Daily.

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Sabaa holds degrees in Marketing from Concordia University and Communication and Design from Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), and has an Executive MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. An avid believer in the power of representation and mentorship, Sabaa is a Mentor at the Black Wealth Club, where he helps emerging Black leaders navigate the professional world and set and execute their long-term and short-term goals.

With a wealth of diversified experiences, Sabaa brings a unique and forward-thinking capacity to Cossette as Chief Creative Officer. He leads the agency’s national and international creative output.

Steve Savic
EVP, ECD
Critical Mass

For over two decades, Steve’s work has covered the digital spectrum and sprawled the digital eco-system, covering anything and everything from transactional to brand-rich campaigns.

These days, keeping his finger on the industry-pulse means finding new ways to apply technology: into stories, into products, across platforms and through experiences. In every case, He brings a transformative perspective to storytelling and design by fusing film, moving image, music, art and technology. That includes, building programs to connect where and how people play in VR, AR and webXR experiences.

His efforts in creating culturally inspired programs has earned global recognition including a Cannes Grand Prix, Cannes Lions, Effie Awards, Clio Awards, as well as awards from The One Show, D&AD, and many more. The result—millions of engaged consumers and tons of travel points.

Steve lives at the foot of the Canadian Rockies where he started his creative career trading design work for ski-passes.

Christina Yu
Partner
Lifelong Crush

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

Christina's most recent position was Managing Partner, Creative Director at Rethink Canada. During that time, she helped lead Rethink to Agency of the Year and Design Agency of the Year for both 2019 and 2020, a feat not accomplished by any other agency.

Prior to joining Rethink, Christina led all creative at Red Urban Canada, an agency she helped form in 2010. While at Red Urban, Volkswagen Canada saw five years of sales records and a few Cannes Lions. Christina was also one of the Creative Directors for Team Blue, creating international work for Volkswagen. When Red Urban was awarded Subaru Canada in 2015, Christina helped them reach record-breaking sales as well.

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

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

Cass Zawadowski
Head of Global Creative Excellence
Manulife

Cass brings 18 years of integrated agency experience, and a wealth of global brand leadership. Her talent has taken her from Toronto, to NY, Europe (Germany) and Asia (Singapore, Korea), and back to Toronto, where she is now tasked with guiding digital transformation and creative brand excellence, and best in class work across social and digital platforms, while using data and analytics to inform insights and measure the work.

She currently leads a cross functional team with a mission to create meaningful experiences between brands and consumers through data-rich creativity, technology, and innovation.

Cass has had the honour of sitting on multiple award juries, including Effies, CMAs, Marketing, LIAs, Clios, and Shots Europe.

She’s an active supporter for women in the advertising and tech industries. When not working, you can find her playing with her dog, Murphy, reading (anything and everything!), and travelling with her partner Michael.

Lyranda Martin Evans
Chief Creative Officer
Fellow Human Creative

Lyranda is an award-winning writer, speaker, podcast host, and mom (#1 global ranking according to her two boys). She is the Vice President of the Advertising and Design Club of Canada and is the host of their podcast “ADCC Created” which unpacks how some of the best campaigns get made.

Matthew May
Creative Director
Believeco

Originally hailing from the sunny shores of the UK, Matthew loves to bring a sense of empathy, big thinking, fresh ideas, and a positive outlook to every creative opportunity – all with a smile on his face.

Currently, he leads the creative team at Brightworks to develop creative strategies and multichannel campaigns that have enriched the world of healthcare and beyond, while generating real results.

With 20 years of experience at digital, advertising, and PR agencies, on two continents, Matthew has worked with global brands such as Virgin Group of Companies, General Motors, Nestlé, Energizer, and GSK with his work being celebrated by the PROMO! Awards, Canadian Marketing Association, ACE Awards, and The New York Festival Awards to name only a few.

Outside of living the ad life, he is obsessed with football (you know, the one that you play with your feet, AKA soccer) and loves coaching kids, helping them develop a lifelong love of the beautiful game.

Radhika Mohandas
Senior Copywriter
FEED/DEPT

After nine years of working as a reporter, photographer, content writer, brand copy lead, copy supervisor, and freelance brand consultant for various publications and brands in India, Radhika moved to Toronto in 2020 to return to doing what she loved most and first–copywriting.

She has written for local, domestic, and international brands, including Starbucks, Toyota, Mia by Tanishq, eBay, Flipkart, and more. Radhika has been a mentor for new copywriters and creatives in the industry.Radhika has crafted campaigns for Scotiabank, eBay, and TD Bank. The campaigns Radhika has worked on for TD Bank and CPAMO The Gathering have won accolades at the Marketing Awards.

Joshua Richards
Senior Technical Director
Klick Health

Joshua Richards is a creative technologist with a passion for the intersection of technology and brand experiences. For over fifteen years he's been developing compelling content across web, social, extended reality, and voice-activated platforms.

Joshua has taught at Miami Ad School (Toronto), where he developed the Interactive Concepting curriculum, teaching creatives to leverage digital platforms in their work. In his previous role as Director, Creative Tech at john st, he was involved in everything from directing nation-wide 16-bit style video games to contextual 90-foot OOH creative.

Currently, he is a Senior Technical Director at Klick Health, where he's working to bring some of those experiences to the health and wellness space.

Jess Willis
Group Creative Director
Performance Art

As far as creatives go, Jess is a little bit different. She started her career twenty years ago in digital & design and has since worked at ground-breaking agencies like john st, Ogilvy, Cossette & TAXI. As the VP, ECD of Mosaic, she transformed the agency into a top 25 showing on Strategy's Creative Report Card - a jump of almost eighty spots and ushered the agency to its first Agency of the Year shortlist.

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, it has 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, Clios and Effies, and has been honoured in Canada at the ADCC, Marketing, Atomics and SIAs. With features in Lüzers Archive, Fast Company, Wired and Devour her portfolio of work has consistently blurred the lines between culture and commerce.

Today, Jess is the GCD of Performance Art, a creative data and tech agency, and is on a mission to help brands understand that when it comes to choosing performance or art, there’s no need to compromise.

Joycelyn David
Owner, CEO
AVC

Joycelyn David began her career in marketing as a freelance web designer. Over her 20-year career on the client/brand side, Joycelyn rose to the top becoming the first Filipino-Canadian business and product marketing leader for the Western Union company in Canada.

In 2019, she tossed her hat into the entrepreneurship ring, pulling up stakes to lead AV Communications. Today, Joycelyn and her team are focused on amplifying the voices of multicultural audiences across North America with clients such as Arbor Memorial, BMO Financial, Canon, DIAGEO, Government of Ontario, LT Foods, SMDC, Trend Micro and Western Union.

Bobby Sahni
Partner & Co-Founder
Ethnicity Matters

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

Bobby has earned national and international recognition for his work and thought leadership. Bobby also loves teaching, having guest-lectured at many universities and regularly speaks at industry events and conferences across North America. Bobby has also served a variety of advisory boards including Imagine Canada, Seva Food Bank, Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer and Credit Valley Conservation Foundation. Most recently, Bobby was elected to the Hockey Canada Board of Directors and is on a mission to help grow the game of hockey for all Canadians. Bobby earned his MBA from the global Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program with cross-cultural studies in Hong Kong, Germany, Miami, Chicago and Toronto. He also holds a Bachelor of Science & Business degree from the University of Waterloo.

Arlene Amitirigala
Principal & Chief Communications Strategist
TrulyArlene Communications

Arlene Amitirigala is the Principal and Chief Communication Strategist at TrulyArlene Communications, a consulting practice based in Canada serving clients in Europe, North America and the Caribbean.

Born in Jamaica, Arlene has lived and worked in eight different countries and speaks Spanish and French. She is a change navigator who transforms her personal experiences into lessons in leadership, life, and love, to benefit others seeking inspiration for their own growth journey. She also produces and hosts The Change Diaries Podcast.

Arlene’s career journey spans several senior roles in marketing and communication in the private and public sector. She has worked in various industries including tourism, investment banking and manufacturing. Her experience includes co-hosting an award-winning national radio program, leading Marketing Communications for the largest financial securities brokerage in the Caribbean and directing corporate communications for Diageo’s West Latin America and Caribbean operations from Miami, Florida. She held the role of Vice-President of Special Interest Groups on the IABC Toronto Chapter Board for 2021/2022 and continues to sit on the Professional Independent Communicators Executive Team as Past Chair.

Her academic qualifications include an MBA from the Solvay Management School in Belgium and a postgraduate certificate in Global Marketing Communication & Advertising from Emerson College.

She lives by the mantra ‘always do your best’.

Keka DasGupta
Strategic Advisor & Founder
The Art of Life-ing

Keka has 25 years of award-winning marketing, PR, crisis/issues management and diversity, equity and inclusion experience across a wide range of sectors. During her 17-year tenure at DDB Canada, Keka served as Vice-President of its PR division (DDB PR), with clients such as: Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Disney, Bosch and Thermador, IKEA, Nordstrom, and Schwarzkopf among others. In this time, Keka was also the recipient of 50 national and international awards. Prior to agency life, Keka worked in-house at IKEA for seven years, managing the brand’s national media relations initiatives, and serving as the company’s media spokesperson on corporate and consumer issues.

Today, Keka continues to consult with agencies such as: DDB Canada, Edery & Lord Communications and Balmoral Multicultural Marketing, providing high-level business development support, strategic counsel and diversity training.

Keka also runs her passion project – a personal development brand called “The Art of Life-ing” through which, as a professional speaker, Keka delivers keynotes and training to corporate and education sectors focusing on gratitude, bullying prevention and personal empowerment. Keka harnesses the power of global branding principles and applies them to mental health strategies. You can catch her TEDx talk inspired by her programming on TED.com. It was highlighted by TED as one of their top 5 talks on gratitude.

Salima Jivraj
Account Director, Multicultural Lead
Nourish Food Marketing

Salima brings a multi-faceted background as a designer and marketing professional to her role at Nourish. She has worked for major grocery retailers, manufacturers, nonprofits and was also the founder of Halal Foodie and Halal Food Festival Toronto. Salima’s extensive understanding of the food industry, Muslim consumer insights and marketing make her an integral part of the Nourish management team.

Aside from her day-to-day responsibilities leading the Accounts Team at Nourish, Salima helps inject innovation and multicultural insights into the agency’s strategic and creative work.

Cyril Kirian
Senior Copywriter
Barrett and Welsh

Cyril is a multidisciplinary humanist with a Masters in Social Work who can think, speak and write in English, Hindi and Gujarati.

At Barrett and Welsh, he is responsible for creative strategy, conceptualization and copy, and has delivered campaigns that engage with the newcomer and South Asian segments.

With over 15+ years of experience in the marketing and advertising space, Cyril has been part of award-winning work for clients ranging from multinational corporations to not-for-profits and from small and medium-sized businesses to government bodies.

Cyril cut his teeth at Brand Aid, a brand communications company that specializes in finding the missing piece of the puzzle for clients operating in the B2B, B2C and G2C space.Post Brand Aid, Cyril spent 7+ years with MSLGROUP, an integrated strategic and creative communications agency that is part of the Publicis Groupe.

Some of the clients he has worked for are P&G, Kimberly-Clark, Sony, TD Bank, Simplii Financial, Ontario Ministry of Energy, Mina Halal (a Maple Leaf Foods brand), The National Arts Centre (NAC), Mexico Tourism, Netflix, Alpenliebe, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF India), Pfizer and PNB Metlife.

When not writing, Cyril can usually be found reading or watching movies or painting.

Florence Lin
Senior Business Director
Koo Multicultural, Division of Cossette

Florence has always been passionate about building brands, and making them resonate with customers. Her career, which spans two decades, has given her a well-rounded perspective from both the agency and the client side. She is known for delivering award-winning campaigns that drive performance in the multicultural space.

Florence is currently an Account Director at KOO, a division of Cossette, where she excels at managing fully integrated marketing campaigns that drive positive customer experiences for clients like TD and Koodo. She has also helped Public Mobile make successful inroads into the New to Canada segment. Some other clients that she has worked with in her past agency life include CIBC, Freedom 55 Financial, Frito Lay and IKEA.

Prior to joining KOO, Florence spearheaded the multicultural portfolio at TELUS, planning and executing campaigns and events that penetrated the Chinese, South Asian and Filipino segments in Canada.

When she is not immersed in ad campaigns, Florence loves to indulge her passion for exploring new places with her family.

Viraj Ponkshe
Creative Director
Consultant

Viraj Ponkshe believes in always evolving on his creative journey - as a busy advertising creative lead, as an avid explorer of art forms, and as a volunteer through art for which he was honoured with Canada’s ‘Mississauga-Malton Annual Remarkable Citizen Award 2021’.

As a Creative Director, he has worked with leading advertising agencies including JWT, BBDO Worldwide and Dentsu, across the globe, in India, Egypt, North and Central Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

In Canada, he worked in the multicultural space as a Creative Director with Dyversity Communications and Ethnicity Matters.

At present he works with various ad agencies as a Consultant Creative Director, leveraging his global experience and perspectives to grow business and build brand connect with diverse consumers, for client success.

His work on renowned brands like Unilever, Pepsi, DaimlerChrysler, Coca-Cola, De Beers, CIBC, RBC, OLG, Bell Canada, Nestle, Kruger products etc, received numerous international honours, including a Cannes Lion, London International Award, Cresta Award, Marketing Awards Canada, Dubai Lynx, Summit International Marketing Awards, IAA Awards, and has also been showcased in Lurzer’s Int’l Archive.

Nachiket Sant
Vice President
Response Advertising

Nachiket Sant is a marketing communications professional who is passionate about delivering results – for brands and people. Currently he works in the capacity of Vice-President at Response Advertising Inc. In 2019, Nachiket led the setup of their Toronto office and is continually working on transforming the agency to tech-first by introducing digital and technological platforms and products that help excel brand and creative performance.

His experience spans across continents and across global agencies such as Leo Burnett, Y&R and Publicis in India and his last stint was as the head of J. Walter Thompson office in Africa. He has been part of the growth story for brands in the telecom, CPG, automotive and financial sectors. A copywriter turned suit, he takes pride in being called jack of all, master of ‘fun’. When it comes to advertising awards, he is no newbie as he has accolades under his belt from Asia, Africa, and North America. Nachiket was also fortunate to chair the setup of the creative awards in Uganda.

Having lived in Africa, Nachiket is passionate about wildlife adventures - shark cage diving, safari in the Masai Mara and Silverback Gorilla trekking are some of his unforgettable experiences. Nachiket loves travelling the world to watch sporting events – the football World Cup in Russia, Cricket World Cup in the UK, Eredivisie in The Netherlands, EPL in England to name a few. And, when he is not engrossed in sports, you will find him watching reruns of The Office.

Alan Sequeira
Co-CD, Art Director
Monsoon Communications

A true global art director and creative mind that can dig deep into numerous cultures with over 30 years of international working experience in mainstream advertising, direct marketing, promotional and experiential marketing, package design and corporate identity. He has worked with some of the best-known agencies in Dubai and Bahrain for clients like Emirates, Hilton Hotel, Standard Chartered Bank, Dubai Aviation Club, Dubai Golf Course & Marina, Qantas, Bahrain Airport, Bahrain Duty Free, Concord Watches, Movado, Wall’s Ice Cream, Bahrain Telecommunications and Grindlays.

In Toronto over the past 2 decades he helped create memorable print & online campaigns, corporate identities, packaging and display designs for brands like Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge, Shaw, Freedom Mobile, CIBC, Scotiabank, Huggies, U by Kotex, The UofT School of Continuing Studies, Chevrolet, Maple Leaf, Logitech, Altec Lansing, Dorcy, Stouffer’s, and DOM Seafoods to name a few. A few years ago, he decided to break out on his own and he's been a full-time freelance art director ever since. Forever in pursuit of the next big idea, his enthusiasm and experience conspire to make creative work that truly works.

Niraj Sinha
CEO
Maple Diversity Communications

Niraj Sinha is an entrepreneur, multicultural markets expert, and a bestselling author. He has spent over 25 years in varied fields ranging from multicultural marketing to advertising and from academics to journalism. Niraj currently heads one of the fastest growing Multicultural ad agencies in North America - Maple Diversity Communications - where he has led many award-winning campaigns to win various Marketing Magazine Awards, CASSIES, Summit International Awards, and Excellence in Multicultural Marketing Awards (EMMA).

In 2017, Maple Diversity Communications became the first ever Canadian multicultural agency to be ranked (#195) as one of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies by PROFIT 500 and Canadian Business. In 2018, Maple Diversity became 79th Fastest-Growing Company in Canada according to Growth 500/Canadian Business. In 2019, Maple Diversity was inducted on the EMMA "Wall of Distinction" by NAMIC as one of the most awarded agencies in multicultural marketing. In 2020, Maple Diversity Communications ranked (#415) among Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies according to the Growth List released by Maclean's/Canadian Business.

In 2021, CEO Insights magazine named him as one of the top 10 Indian business leaders in Canada. Niraj has also written a book on foreign policy and global affairs - "Beyond Borders".

Pierre Tang
Associate Creative Director
Dyversity Communications

Pierre Tang is an accomplished creative with a history of success both creating campaigns and as a team leader. He is known for his collaborative and empowering leadership style, and his pivotal role in helping local and global brands find their voices in the multicultural markets of Canada.

Pierre is an Associate Creative Director at Dyversity Communications, where he is responsible for overseeing copywriting and creative solutions for clients such as Royal Bank of Canada, Canada Post, Bell, Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile and Responsible Gambling Council. Winning several industry awards, including T-CAN Platinum Award, Strategy’s Marketing Awards and SIA Summit International Awards along the way.

Phoebe Yang
Art Director
Captus Advertising

Phoebe Yang is an illustrator, designer, and now an Art Director at Captus Advertising. She started her career in Mainland China and has over a decade of experience working on the client and agency side. Her exceptional illustration skills not only help to enhance each creative concept but also makes her work visually more stunning and impactful.

Phoebe has a 16-month-old daughter. She feels most energized and creative when she is surrounded by nature.

Chris Dacyshyn
ECD
Bleublancrouge

Long before bringing her own unique brand of purpose-led bravery to Bleublancrouge, Chris was helping advertisers use their influence to better people’s lives in real and meaningful ways. She has spent decades building an impressive body of work that proves brand advocacy can produce exceptional business results and industry awards, while elevating society at the same time.

For Dove, she not only helped shape Campaign for Real Beauty and the Dove Self-Esteem Project in the infancy stage, she also created a Titanium-nominated, sold-out play for women of a certain age and launched a baby care brand that makes moms feel beautiful, instead of inadequate. For Hellmann’s “Real” Mayonnaise, she invented their Real Food Movement. Her No Baby Unhugged campaign for Huggies educated moms on the power of skin-to-skin hugs, while generating unprecedented sales at home and abroad. Her work for Nike shattered stereotypes for women in sport, while her campaigns for Heart & Stroke and Drug Free Kids earned everything from Effies to Clios.

Throughout her career, Chris’ efforts have been consistently recognized by Cannes, D&AD, The Clios, Communication Arts, One Show, Effies, the European Effies and more. She has had the pleasure of serving on many juries, including Cannes.

Glen D'Souza
Head of Creative
Forsman & Bodenfors

Glen D’Souza is Head of Creative at Forsman & Bodenfors Canada.

He began his career in advertising as an Art Director just over 20 years ago. His body work includes award winning campaigns for Church & Dwight, Dove, LG Electronics, Best Buy, Ontario Power Generation, Scotiabank, Walmart, Seneca, 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 training and action.

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.

Matt Antonello
Creative Director

Matt Antonello is an award-winning freelance writer and creative director based in Toronto.

For over 20 years, his work has been consistently awarded in local and international shows including multiple appearances in Cannes, The One Show, The Clios, D&AD and Communication Arts.

When he’s not tooting his own horn, you’ll find Matt tallying how many times he hears account people say the word “leverage”.

Natalie Bomberry
VP, Operations
Pilot PMR

Natalie Bomberry has over 15 years of professional communications and agency leadership experience working with some of North America’s top public companies and institutions to independent businesses and seed-stage ventures.

A Mohawk-Bajan woman from Six Nations of the Grand River, now working in Toronto, Natalie is a member of the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada. She also serves on the steering committee of People of Colour in Advertising and Marketing (POCAM) and values working with incredibly intelligent, creative, connected humans - colleagues and clients - in the field of brand strategy and design.

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.

Anne-Claude Chenier
ECD
Cossette

Since joining Cossette and the advertising industry in 2001, Anne-Claude has been known for her boundless energy, infectious team spirit and inexhaustible passion for creativity.

Her talent and leadership have allowed brands like Bimbo, McDonald’s Canada and Amnesty International to further raise their profile.

Her work has been recognized in the most prestigious competitions, such as The One Show, D&AD, Cannes Lions, Communication Arts, the Marketing Awards and Applied Arts.

Since fall 2021, Anne-Claude has been co-leader of the creative team in Québec, helping Cossette’s product shine bright, both here and abroad.

Siobhan Dempsey
Creative Director
DonerNorth

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

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

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

Addie Gillespie
Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Addie is a Creative Director from Vancouver who went to OCAD University to be an art director, so naturally, is a writer. She started working on everything from Smart fortwo to the Vancouver International Film Festival, earning her awards at the One Show and Cannes, amongst others. From there, she continued creating insight-driven work partnering with brands like John Frieda, Honda, BC Dairy, and Children’s Hospital, Athletics Canada, and Sleeman. And, thanks to the silver lining of this little pandemic, she’s loving this whole working from home even though there’s so, so many dishes.

Lisa Greenberg
Co Chief Creative Officer
Leo Burnett Company Ltd

Lisa is a creator, maker, shaper, tea totalling dreamer. She has been reaching for the stars with Leo since 2010. Her passion for creativity in all forms has helped Leo Burnett earn an international reputation as a place for world-changing thinking.

As part of Leo's Global Product Committee, D&AD & Cannes Lions judging panels, she's been able to share her passion for the work.

Joel Holtby
Co-Founder & CCO
Courage

Joel Holtby is the Co Founder & Co-CCO of Courage. His work has earned more than 300+ international and national awards, including multiple Gold Cannes Lions as well as multiple medals at every major international show. Joel was named Ad Age's Creative Director of the year in 2020 and consistently ranks among the Top Creative Directors in Strategy Magazine’s Creative Report Card. His work has not only consistently become part of the cultural conversation, but also driven tangible business results for some of the biggest brands in the world.

Joel is also a proud dad to 2 wonderful little girls, June and Blair.

Steven Kim
Creative Director
123w

For over 20 years, Steven’s work ethic coupled with his love for the business of creativity has led him to generate a string of award-winning work for agencies of all sizes. What he loves the most about being creative is the chase for purity, always striving for work that is well-considered yet effortless in craft. Steven is also an award-winning photographer, with a keen interest in just about anything. He’s currently a Creative Director at 123w in Toronto.

Meredith Klapowich
Chief Creative Officer
Narrative

Meredith is the Chief Creative Officer and Managing Director at Narrative, a division of Tadiem, leading the agency’s creative vision as part of the executive leadership team. Over the past five years, she spearheaded the development of Narrative's creative and experiential teams, which have tripled in size, and resulted in a Gold at the 2019 Strategy PR Agency of the Year Awards. Meredith originally joined Bensimon Byrne in 2005, and over her storied tenure, has worked across all divisions, including OneMethod, contributing to many of the agency’s most awarded campaigns earning Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, One Show Pencils and Clios. She is also Mum to daughters Bee & Teddy.

Sacha Ouimet
Executive Creative Director
The Hive

Sacha Ouimet is a seasoned executive creative director who has been working in the advertising industry for almost 20 years.

Sacha studied internationally and holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the renowned UQAM in Montreal, as well as a diploma in art direction from ESAG Penninghen, the famous school of design, graphic art and architecture in Paris.

After spending most of his career on the agency side (Cossette, Forsman & Bodenfors, McCann), Sacha turned to the client side and became the global creative director for CCM Hockey. After 3 years of traveling the world with professional field hockey players, Sacha returned to agency life, but now as national co-executive creative director at The Hive.

Always challenging the artistic process and finding new ways to balance creativity and client strategy, Sacha has already received several awards throughout his career. His experience on both sides of the marketing spectrum has given him the opportunity to speak at numerous advertising conferences.

Jennifer Rossini
Group Creative Director
FCB

Jennifer Rossini is a Toronto-based Group Creative Director, currently working at FCB Toronto. Her 20 years of industry experience across agencies like Lowe Roche, john st, Red Urban and Sid Lee includes work for BMO, McDonalds USA, ABI, Molson/Coors, Netflix, DAZN, HomeSense, and Volkswagen, across a wide range of creative disciplines. Jennifer’s work has been recognized at shows including Cannes, Clios, The One Show, D&AD, The Webby Awards, and Communication Arts.

Maxime Saute
ECD
Dentsu Creative

Born in Brussels, Belgium, Max is a true citizen of the world. After leaving his native Brussels as a young adult, he spent his time living in Vancouver before making Montreal his home.

Max's passion for advertising began at an early age when he was introduced to the world of advertising by his father, who worked in the printing industry.

In the last 5 years, he consistently ranked amongst Canada’s top creatives with numerous accolades from Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, Clio, Webby Awards, ADCC, Marketing Awards and Communication Arts, just to name a few.

Previously, he was a Partner and Creative Director at Rethink, where his contributions helped the agency garner 4 Gold AOY titles in a row.

He has been lucky enough to work with some of the best brands in the world, helping them through both his creative vision and strategic thinking.
He believes that great work comes from a deep understanding of his client's business, always looking for ways to utilize and optimize his team's creative flow.

Max is honoured to have recently joined Dentsu Creative as an Executive Creative Director.

Rob Gendron
Creative Director
Saatchi & Saatchi

A veteran of over 20 years in the industry, Rob has worked on some of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, including Toyota, Ford, BMW, Walmart, VISA, GSK, P&G and most recently Mondelez Canada.

His work over the years has been recognized for outstanding creativity with awards in Communication Arts, The ADCC, Applied Arts, Marketing Awards, Creativity Magazine, and finalist recognition at the One Show.

Allie Keith
ACD
Rethink

Allie is an award-winning associate creative director currently at Rethink in Toronto.

Her work has been recognized by Cannes, the One Show, the Clio Awards, and the London International Awards to name a few but none of those things matter to her parents.

In the last 15 years she’s had the pleasure of partnering with some amazing brands including Tim Hortons, Pepsi, Hotels.com, The US Army, Molson, Illinois Tourism, and Kotex and her most notable work has been the campaign #BlackedOutHistory for the Ontario Black History Society.

She cares deeply about using the power and influence of advertising to make change and do some good in the world.

When she’s not working her eyes are firmly glued to Beyoncé videos.

Mike Schonberger
VP, Creative Director
BBDO Canada

Mike Schonberger is currently VP, Creative Director at BBDO Canada.

He’s equally comfortable doing everything from building brands from scratch to crafting and launching campaigns for global brands.

Mike’s work for a wide range of clients has been recognized globally at Cannes Lions, The One Show, D&AD, Clio Awards, London International Awards, Communication Arts, Marketing Awards and others.

His two lovely kids, Ella and Leo, are not impressed by any of this.

Ian Simpson
Group Creative Director
Ogilvy

Ian’s advertising career began over 15 years ago in Texas where he enjoyed breakfast tacos and completed his Master’s in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. Over his career Ian has created campaigns for some of Canada’s biggest brands such as TD, Kraft, Tim Hortons, Bell, Labatt, Unilever, ParticipACTION, Yum, KitchenAid, Cadbury, and CAMH. That work has included a feature-length movie, widely used hashtags, new products, and the occasional print ad.

His work has been featured in national newspapers, Variety magazine, countless online sites, and has also been recognized by numerous award shows including The One Show, Cannes Lions, D&AD, the Effie Awards, Epica, and the Clio Awards.

He’s currently a Group Creative Director at Ogilvy.

Kim Tarlo
Executive Creative Director
Mint

Kim is the Executive Creative Director at Mint.

Born in Toronto where she is currently, Kim has worked for agencies in Canada, the UK and the US including Sid Lee, McCann, and Sunshine, amongst others. She is a writer by craft, film director for fun and design obsessed. Over the last 16 years, she has spent her time at highly ranked agencies endeavouring to build brands to thrive in, or sometimes even form, culture. She has worked on a mix of global and local work, from massive brand platform transformations, to nimble creative campaigns. Her work has been recognized by Cannes, Effies, Clios, Strategy, Communication Arts, Fast Company, amongst others.She was named in Marketing Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 and one of Youtube’s Creative Women to Watch.

She is passionate about creative work that tells a story, has an opinion and makes people feel, as well as developing young creatives to lead the future of our industry.

Adam Thur
Executive Creative Director
DDB

After over 15 years in the industry, Adam finds himself constantly inspired by the new ways that creativity can transform a brand. And while his approach has evolved with the times, one thing has remained constant: his belief that every creative idea must start with a strong consumer insight.

These principles have helped him create breakthrough work for clients such as Audi, IKEA, Wonder Bread, Interval House, and Frito-Lay. Adam has been honoured to work at some of Canada’s top agencies, including TAXI, Leo Burnett, and Juniper Park, and he is now Executive Creative Director at DDB Canada.

Adam’s innovative ideas and attention to craft have helped him earn many Canadian and international awards, including multiple Cannes Lions and Effies.

2023 Jury