Jury
The 2025 Young Lions jury will be announced in January 2025.
Learn more about each category Chair and Co-Chair by clicking their photo
The 2025 Young Lions jury will be announced in January 2025.
Learn more about each category Chair and Co-Chair by clicking their photo
Mary Maddever is EVP Strategy & Realscreen, with oversight of magazines, events and daily news publications for Canada’s marketing industry (strategy, Media In Canada) and the global documentary/unscripted entertainment business (Realscreen).
She’s also the editorial director of Brunico Communications, overseeing journalistic policy and procedures for the company’s editorial teams. Maddever has led content strategy and new product development on publications ranging from global TV and film industry magazine launches to daily news brands, as well as conference, awards and mentorship programs. Her background as an editor spans Strategy magazine, international kids entertainment biz magazine KidScreen and TV & film industry journal Playback.
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 creativity 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, pharma accounts and McDonald’s. Now, I’m leading a group of many different talents who are brilliantly solving all sorts of problems for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Quebec, Domino’s pizza, Canac Hardware, Exceldor, Ocean’s Spray, the Quebec government, and the Quebec dairy board.
I’ve always been proud to contribute to the success of LG2, which is now the largest independent agency in Canada.
But more importantly, I will continue to create the way I always have – with the heart of a 4-year-old.
Karen Howe leads The Township Group. She is a globally recognized Creative Director and a Cannes Lions Advisory Board member who trains Canada’s Young Lions and Judges for competition.
Regarded as an authority on global trends in culture, tech and creativity, Karen speaks to audiences across North America providing a vital analysis of these key trends.
Karen is also a rarity as a female creative director in an industry where fewer than 10% are women. Count on her for a unique point of view.
Sabaa Quao is the Chief Creative and Innovation Officer at Cossette. He is a creative leader, career entrepreneur, and business strategist. As a digital media veteran, he has built and grown several platforms and companies across content, tech, and culture spaces. Sabaa believes that the “innovation” mandate is as urgent today as it was for agencies and creative professionals who faced the start of the digital era 25 years ago.
Sabaa is passionate about creativity and international business. He has led and worked with marketing and technology teams in over a dozen countries, which has enriched his perspective and approach. He is also a frequent keynote speaker and an industry advisor to business and creative schools, specializing in creativity, entrepreneurship, and business model innovation.
An executive communications leader, with 22+ years of international experience in the Advertising, Media and Communications industries. Passionate and driven.
Shannon champions the Canadian Media Directors’ Council business objectives with sound strategy, inspired creativity, and humanity. The CMDC operates to ensure a fair and progressive media marketplace with members accounting for 96% of the total media investment, over $10 billion invested in the Canadian economy, jobs and communications infrastructure. Shannon is passionate about CMDC’s mission of the Canadian Media Manifesto, which galvanizes the media industry to support a healthy, balanced media ecosystem, fostering responsible media and giving media agency clients more opportunities to connect with diverse Canadian audiences.
Consistently recognized as a highly motivated and transformational leader with accolades including Canadian Business RBC SME Top 25 Women to Watch. Over two decades, she has contributed to the success of global brands including BBC, Microsoft, Unilever, and Diageo. Shannon is a proud mother of two, avid skier, and arts advocate and has been known to hike a few mountains, from Patagonia to Kilimanjaro.
Brooke was integral to the launch of Jungle Media in 2010 with inaugural client IKEA who she guided quickly to a Best-In-Show at the Media Innovation Awards. IKEA was followed by Capital One and numerous other clients leading to great success and Jungle’s winning a Strategy Media agency of the year in their inaugural year.
Brooke is now leading Jungle with a team of partners. She is responsible for the overall Jungle experience: culture, talent growth, client success and marketing efforts as well as managing the Media Planning team.
Brooke has been pushing her clients to innovate in the world of media, earning a reputation for her award-winning media work, partnering with such clients as General Mills, Coca-Cola, Nike, IKEA, Toyota and Nordstrom.
Brooke is a bold and creative thinker who inspires great work that drives results. She has been nationally recognized with Media Innovation Awards and Atomic awards for her clients. She has also seen success internationally, with Cannes Lions for IKEA and Nike as well as an Effie award for work done on IKEA. She was a member of the Cannes Media Jury in 2022.
Brooke is on the CMDC Board leading the Young Ambassador Program and is passionate about the future of our industry.
Susan Irving is an industry leader with a passion for brands and a reputation for delivering business results through strategic integrated marketing campaigns. Now, as Chief Marketing Officer for Kruger Products L.P., Susan is responsible for leading the marketing team to set the vision, strategic direction, and drive business performance for all Kruger Products brands and marketing activities in Canada and the United States. She is also a key member of the Company’s Executive Team.
Susan is an accomplished, award-winning senior marketing executive with over two decades of experience leading many successful and well-known brands at Warner Lambert, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. She has a strong passion for brands and building high performance teams. She is a strategic business leader with experience that spans across all aspects of business management and consumer marketing including brand strategy; advertising and communications; P&L management; media planning; digital; social media; innovation; consumer insights; as well as sports and event marketing. Most recently at PepsiCo Foods Canada, Susan was the Senior Marketing Director for the Quaker Nutrition portfolio. During her 15 years at PepsiCo, she held several progressive roles including leadership of a Global Snacks team in New York where she was responsible for Doritos, Cheetos and Sunbites – three of the company’s billion dollar brands. Prior to that, Susan spent more than a decade at PepsiCo Canada leading teams of passionate marketers in creating successful campaigns that drove profitable growth for brands including Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles and Tostitos. Susan is known for her collaborative approach of working with teams to deliver breakthrough, insight-driven consumer campaigns and programs that deliver growth.
As an accomplished marketer, Susan has been recognized with several industry accolades including CMAs, Cassies, Cannes Lions, Effies, The Bessies, Clios, Media Innovation Awards and Canadian New Media Awards. She was also among Marketing Magazine’s prestigious Top 30 under 30, Canada’s Strategy Magazine 2020 Marketer of the Year and the Canadian Marketing Association 2021 Marketer of the Year.
An avid sailor, Susan was a member of the Canadian Sailing Team, having campaigned for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. She was the President of the Leaside Hockey Association Board of Directors where she severed for seven years; the Jury Chair for the Globe and Mail’s Cannes Young Marketers Competition; a judge for several industry award shows; a key note speaker for North American Conferences and a committee member of WISE Canada (Women in Sport and Entertainment). She is also a member of the Canadian Women and Sport Board of Directors and The Ontario Hockey Federation Board of Directors.
When Susan takes a break from Marketing, you can find her on a sail boat or a ski hill. As a busy mother of two young boys, you’ll also find her in hockey rinks, at road races and on the soccer field supporting their family’s passion of competitive sport.
Shauna is an internationally-awarded creative with over a decade of experience in the advertising and PR industry and is currently a VP and Creative Director at Edelman Canada. Shauna is passionate about creative problem solving and culture-shaping work. She is thrilled to co-chair the first Young Lions PR jury in Canadian history – bring on the ideas!
Eva Salem leads all marketing and brand activities for Canadian Tire, SportChek, Mark’s, Triangle Rewards, and Canadian Tire Corporation’s (CTC) multi-billion-dollar portfolio of Owned Brands. She also oversees CTC’s ESG strategy, sustainability initiatives, community involvement, content creation, and sponsorship activities. Eva’s collaborative, passionate approach has driven unprecedented business results and wide industry acclaim for CTC. Eva was named among WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2022, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business: 2020 Canada’s Best Executives, awarded 2022 marketer of the Year by Strategy Magazine and voted Marketer of the Year by the Canadian Marketing Association in 2023.
Stephanie is the Chief Design Officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo. Her expertise lies in establishing brand visions for the future and translating how a brand looks, feels, and behaves across experiences, products, and services. Her work has been recognized at every major award show including The One Show, D&AD, Cannes Lions, ADC, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design. She also championed the development of the world’s first encyclopedia for Microaggressions: The Micropedia, which has garnered international accolades. Stephanie is an active contributor for thought leadership on topics like designing for social impact, inclusive design, and behavior change. She also sits on the Board for Simprints, a not-for-profit tech company helping in the fight against world poverty and disease.
Laura is a strategically-minded design leader and culture builder.
She has extensive experience in branding, leading global rebrands of organizations such as Sonos, ASICS, and Linksys. As Chief Creative Officer of BMD, she has collaborated with a diversity of clients from lululemon to Hutchins Center at Harvard University to Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. Her work crosses fields of culture, fashion, architecture, technology, education, and place.
Her work has been featured in books such as Designing Brand Identity and Dynamic Identities as well as publications like Fast Company, Communication Arts, Print and Creative Review. She has been recognized by Cannes Lions and D&AD, among others, and also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Advertising and Design Club of Canada. She enjoys talking about vision and process, and has been a speaker at conferences including Brand New, DesignThinkers, and FITC.